Pizza Casserole

This Pizza Casserole is a crowd pleaser! Made with pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, onions and homemade pizza sauce are tossed with rotini pasta, topped with mozzarella and baked until bubbly.

Course Main Dishes

Cuisine American

Keyword baked pasta, casserole, italian sausage, Mushrooms, onions, pasta, pepperoni, pizza, red onion, sausage

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Servings Servings

Calories 559kcal

Ingredients

Ingredients:

1 pound dried rotini pasta
kosher salt
1 pound hot or mild ground Italian sausage
1 green bell pepper ribs and seeds removed, diced
1/2 cup red onion chopped
1 cup crimini mushrooms quartered
1/2 cup diced pepperoni
1 1/2 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Season liberally with salt, about 1 tablespoon. Cook pasta for 6-7 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and strain the rest. Pasta will be firm.
In a large skillet brown Italian sausage, about 5 minutes. Strain.
In the same pan you cooked the sausage stir together bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms and pepperoni. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables soften. Return sausage to pan. Stir to combine. Add in pasta and pizza sauce. If pasta seems too dry, add in enough pasta water until desired consistency. Mix well. Remove from heat.
Spoon mixture into a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove. Top 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Place under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. Serve immediately.

Notes

Note that the pasta will be pretty firm when you strain in, this is because it will continue to cook while the casseroles in the oven.

Freezer Instructions:

To freeze one casserole. Line a casserole dish with foil, making sure to leave enough hanging off the sides to wrap around the casserole. Spoon casserole mixture into prepared pan. Set pan on top of ice water to cool rapidly. Then freeze for a couple of hours or until firm. Lift the frozen casserole out of the dish, wrap in foil and place in a plastic freezer bag. Cook within 2-3 months.
When ready to bake, place frozen casserole in casserole dish and thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the casserole. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese on top and bake for 20-25 minutes or until mozzarella is melted and casserole is heated through. Remove from oven sprinkle 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella and 1/4 shredded Parmesan on top. Place under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown.

Nutrition information for estimation purposes only.

Nutrition