Supreme Pizza Casserole

If you love supreme pizza, you're going to go crazy for this Supreme Pizza Casserole. Penne pasta is tossed with marinara sauce and loaded full of toppings like sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms. But don't forget the generous helping of shredded mozzarella cheese on top! 

While not exactly genius, this may be my favorite recipe creation yet. How often do you eat pizza in your house? We usually have it at least once a week, but it is almost always take out and never one that I make. With my hours for work, "real" pizza dough takes too long to put together by the time I get home. And the prepackaged dough you can buy from the store still requires too much of a rise time.

So I came up with this creation, that you can cook up and assemble on the weekend (or in the morning if you're ambitious) and then pop in the oven for a great weeknight meal.

WHAT IS SUPREME PIZZA CASSEROLE?

• Supreme Pizza Casserole is many of the ingredients you'd find on a supreme pizza, but instead of pizza crust it's all tossed together with penne pasta and baked in the oven.

SUBSTITUTIONS FOR SUPREME PIZZA CASSEROLE

Much to Tom's dismay, when I said I was going to make a pizza casserole it didn't just include pizza sauce, cheese and pasta. While a supreme pizza typically includes black olives, I don't like them and chose to substitute mushrooms instead.

• To make this low-carb, replace the pasta with cooked spaghetti squash or layer it over cauliflower rice.
• Swap out the mushrooms, onions and peppers for veggies you like or skip them all together!
• Replace the marinara sauce with pizza sauce

PIZZA CASSEROLE INGREDIENTS

• 16 oz box penne pasta (or shape of your choice)
• 24 oz. jar marinara sauce
• ½ lb sausage, cooked and crumbled
• ¼ cup pepperoni slices
• 1 ½ cups (total) mushrooms, onions and green peppers
• ½ teaspoon each garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes
• 2-4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS FOR PIZZA CASSEROLE

1. Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the sausage, crumbling until browned. Set aside.
3. Cook the mushrooms, onions and bell peppers in any grease left from the sausage.
4. Toss the pasta, marinara sauce, sausage, pepperoni, veggies and seasonings together in a pot or bowl.
5. Transfer to a 9x13 baking dish and cover with 2-4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is browned and crispy.

While leftovers usually don't get eaten in this house, these supreme pizza casserole leftovers (if they are any!) are first to go!

MAKE-AHEAD OR FREEZE

• Follow steps 1-5 to make this dish in advance. It can be frozen from that stage.
• To cook, let it come to room temperature and then cover it with cheese and bake. You may need to increase your bake time if the dish is still cold.
• Cook and then freeze: let the casserole cool to room temperature, cover and freeze for 3-4 weeks. You may need to add more sauce when cooking after being frozen.

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