One Pot Pizza Pasta Casserole

Dinner doesn’t get easier than this one pot pizza pasta casserole. It’s full of sausage, pepperoni, and gooey mozzarella cheese. It’s one of our new family favorites.

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One Pot Pizza Casserole

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Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Italian sausage
• 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/2 of a 12 ounce box of penne pasta, gluten free if necessarY
• 20-25 pepperonis, gluten free if necessary
• 1/2 can water
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon garlic infused oil, or 1 teaspoon garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 to 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Bring water to a boil in a pot. Boil pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside (or you can add the pasta later, bring the sauce to a boil, and boil until cooked. You will need to add an additional one can of water if you do this.)
2. In an oven safe pot, cook and crumble sausage. Drain excess grease and return to pot.
3. Add tomato sauce, about 1/2 the pepperonis, the water, tomato paste, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes to the sausage. Cook until everything is combined and warm.
4. Mix in the parmesan cheese and cooked pasta.
5. Cover with mozzarella cheese. Place pepperonis on top of that.
6. Place in oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is warm and bubbly.

I think 2014 was definitely the year of the one pot dinners. These took Pinterest by storm! I’m very much a minimalist in the kitchen, and the more I can avoid piles of dishes, the better. As soon as I tried my first one pot meal, I was hooked.

Since I jumped on this band wagon, I’ve enjoyed transforming my favorite recipes into one dish favorites as well. For instance, one of the most popular recipes on our blog is my mom’s easy meat lasagna. Several months ago, Forrest and I decided to make it into a one dish skillet lasagna, and it’s one of our favorite dishes still. I also love making skillet chicken enchiladas on those days when I just don’t have time for my regular chicken enchilada recipe (even though those are super easy.)

It only made sense for me to transform one of my favorite casseroles – pizza casserole – into a one pot meal as well! This is something I had been contemplating for quite awhile, but I just never got around to it. Because of Jack’s dietary restrictions, we always have to make our own spaghetti sauces.

However, this recipe is really as simple as can be. If you can have regular spaghetti sauce in a jar, you can use that in place of a bunch of the spices and what not. I’m sure it will taste great! Let me tell ya though – I sure am grateful Jack can have garlic infused oil. I’m not sure how I’d survive cooking without garlic entirely! We bought this kind last week, and I really like it.

Jack really liked helping me with this for some reason. I think it might have been because I let him sneak some “pepps” during the process. Luckily, he loved the dish a lot. He asked for seconds (and probably thirds. I don’t remember.) We used gluten free pasta, but if you don’t have a gluten sensitivity or intolerance…use all the gluten pasta you want!

One thing I will note – if you want this to be a true one dish meal – you can boil the noodles directly in the sauce. However, I found this took a lot more time and effort, so if you want to boil them beforehand and set them aside, and then just add them in add the end..It’s a little bit easier!