Easy Pizza Casserole Dinner

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Easy Pizza Casserole Dinner

a photo of a cheesy pepperoni pasta casserole topped with sliced olives and melted cheese

This delicious and simple pizza casserole is the perfect weeknight dinner solution. Made with layers of pasta, pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese, and your choice of toppings, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser!

This is an emergency post. We’ve had a pizza casserole recipe on the blog since it first began, almost 17 years ago. Until now. I went to pull it up for dinner one night a few weeks ago and it was gone. Where did the pizza casserole recipe disappear to?!

I still have no idea what happened, but thankfully I still had the recipe with one change, we ONLY use our homemade pizza sauce. You’ll have to trust me on this one, it totally transforms the dish from good to amazing.

Every time I ask my kids for dinner ideas, they always say pizza…every single time. I love pizza as much as the next person (four cheese margherita pizza, pizzeria pizza dough, pesto pepperoni and sausage pizza), but homemade pizza takes time and planning ahead. Let me be honest, sometimes I’m not that on the ball. Pizza pasta casserole to the recipe! It tastes like you are eating pizza but it’s on the table from start to finish in less than an hour.

What is Needed to Make Pizza Casserole?

If you’re looking for a delicious and quick weeknight meal, this easy pizza casserole dinner is a recipe that the whole family will love. With simple ingredients and minimal prep time, you’ll have dinner on the table in no time! Here is everything you’ll need…

  • Ground Beef: We used 85/15 which I recommend for the best flavor.
    • PRO TIP: You can use just ground beef or just sausage, but I found that the combination of both meats provided a depth of flavor that was so tasty. Ground beef is also so kid-friendly!
  • Mild Italian Sausage: Adds that signature meat lovers pizza flavor.
  • Homemade Pizza Sauce: You really have to try this homemade pizza sauce in this recipe, but if you don’t have the time, buy a good quality store-bought sauce.
  • Pasta: We use rigatoni but any pasta will work fine. I’d recommend a big hearty noodle for the best texture.
  • Mozzarella: The best melty cheese for pizza.
  • Pepperoni: any brand of pre-sliced pepperoni works great
  • Parmesan Cheese: adds bold pizza flavor
  • Sliced Black Olives: totally optional but I love olives so they are a must for me

Garden Veggie Homemade Marinara Sauce [+Video]

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Garden Veggie Homemade Marinara Sauce [+Video]

a photo of vegetable marinara on top of cooked angel hair pasta

Looking for a healthy and delicious pasta sauce recipe? This garden veggie homemade marinara sauce is packed with flavorful vegetables and can be made in under 30 minutes. Watch the video tutorial and try it out tonight!

Every kid loves pizza, many love spaghetti so a marinara sauce is a great way to get your children to enjoy more veggies. Try vegetarian marinara sauce!

I’ve never been a big fan of sneaking veggies into food as I’d rather my kids learn to love vegetables, but I see nothing wrong with packing something full of them in an easy to eat way like vegetarian spaghetti sauce.

What is Sautéing?

The word sauté (pronounced “saw-TAY”) refers to a form of dry-heat cooking that uses a hot pan and a small amount of fat to cook the food.

Why Sauté?

There’s only one step that I insist on for this entire recipe, please make sure you take a moment to sauté the vegetables before making the sauce. Think of it like corn or grilled corn. Isn’t grilled corn so much more delicious? Same thing with sautéing vegetables for a dish, the heat breaks them down and really brings out the flavor.

I mean, it’s like eating raw carrots with your roast at Sunday dinner or nice and caramelized carrots from baking in the pan with that beefy babe.

I think that’s one of my favorite tips about cooking. To some it may seem obvious but to a large portion of the public something like sautéing everything versus just throwing it all in a pot to simmer may not be.

Ingredients for Vegetable Marinara Sauce

This sauce really doesn’t need much fuss either. A bunch of veggies, a little cheese and a dollop of butter and you’re good to go. The secret is a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I don’t know why it works but it does. I’ll wait for America’s Test Kitchen to figure that one out. Here is the ingredients list:

  • Olive Oil
  • Herbs and Seasonings: Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Kosher Salt, Fresh Basil Leaves, Dried Oregano and Black Pepper
  • Vegetables: Garlic, Zucchini, Carrot, Baby Bella Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper, Yellow Bell Pepper, Orange Bell Pepper and Crushed Tomatoes
  • Tomato Sauce
  • Brown Sugar
  • Butter
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Balsamic Vinegar

The measurements and details for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Homemade Marinara Sauce

Honestly, the most time consuming part of this chopping all the veggies before sautéing them. After that, it’s a total breeze! Here are all the steps:

  1. Sauté: Place a dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat and add the olive. Let it heat up until it’s shimmering. Then add the garlic and crush red pepper. Stir for about a mi

Pizza-dilla (Pizza Quesadilla) [+Video]

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Pizza-dilla (Pizza Quesadilla) [+Video]

a photo of a slice of a tortilla pizza that is golden and crispy with melty cheese coming out and topped with sprinkled cotija cheese and garlic butter with a small bowl of pizza sauce next to it

Have you ever had a pizza quesadilla (or tortilla pizza)? It is such a quick and easy way to enjoy those classic pizza flavors! We have named them “pizza-dillas” in our house!

It’s always the random recipes that turn out the best. We held a quesadilla throw down one Sunday evening and things got a little delicious. At first we had planned to make original quesadillas using anything, but the kids decided to have us all pick a meat then create any kind of quesadilla you want.

I ended up with pepperoni and at first was a little bummed. But it turned out to be the best quesadilla ever!! The secret? Oh my goodness, it’s so random and I don’t even know why it works, but a little lime honey drizzle inside of the quesadilla, wow!!! It’s absolutely delicious!!! The buttery, garlic topping and that touch of salt from the cotija cheese, it’s just so good! Always use vista tortillas, my favorite, and Volpi pepperoni is hands down the best!

We make them in the air fryer which makes them extra crispy and delicious, and dinner is on the table in 10 minutes!

Ingredients for Tortilla Pizzas

The ingredients for pizzadillas are simple with a couple of key items that take the flavor profile to the next level! Here is what you will need:

  • Flour Tortillas: Our favorite brand is Vista, but you can use whatever flour tortillas your family loves.
  • Mozzarella: Buy a brick of good quality mozzarella cheese and shred it yourself for the best flavor and melt factor.
  • Pepperoni: Volpi is the best brand ever. I find it here in Utah at Trader Joe’s and Harmons. If you can’t find Volpi, then ask the deli counter worker for a good quality pepperoni.
  • Butter: I use unsalted butter just to keep the saltiness down, and it’s used to create the garlic butter spread for the outside of the tortilla pizza.
  • Johnny’s Garlic Spread: I always buy Johnny’s at Costco, but you can find it at most grocery stores or online. Any garlic seasoning would work to mix with the butter for the garlic butter spread.
  • Honey: A little drizzle inside of the pizzadilla adds a little touch of sweetness that makes all the other flavors burst. You could use hot honey instead if you want a little heat!

Classic Margherita Pizza Recipe

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Classic Margherita Pizza Recipe

My go-to pizza at all pizza restaurants is a margherita. It’s my favorite…hands down. Logically I had to create my own classic margherita pizza recipe that rivals the pies I had in Italy.

I honestly feel like you can judge how legit a pizza place is on how good their margherita is. If they can’t make a good marg…pizza in it’s most simple, pure form…then I have little hope for any of their other ‘zas. Might be harsh, but it has worked for me so far!

The crust in this recipe is a Neopolitan crust which means that it is thin. We love it thin and chewy. This pizza crust recipe is flawless and the perfect compliment to the simple and delicate but bold flavor of a margherita pizza.

homemade margherita pizza with fresh basil leaves

Ingredients for a Margherita Pizza Recipe

Recipes that are amazing have to be complicated and have a grocery list a mile long, right? Wrong! The crust has just 5 ingredients, the sauce has 2, and for the toppings, there are 3. It really couldn’t be more simple! Here is what you will need:

Dough:

  • Baker’s flour (or 00 flour): essential to getting that chewy crust you want in a pizza, see section below for more details
  • Water: it needs to be warm (105-115 degrees F) to activate the yeast properly
  • Sea Salt: go for fine grain, adds flavor to the crust
  • Sugar: feeds the yeast
  • Instant Yeast: don’t use active dry yeast

Sauce:

  • San Marzano Tomatoes: you can use crushed, whole, diced…whatever you can find…it all ends up in the blender
  • Sea Salt: adds flavor to the sauce

Toppings:

  • Fresh Mozzarella: you can use as much or as little of the cheese as you want
  • Fresh Basil: I like to leave the leaves whole and scatter them over th

Best Pizzeria Pizza Dough Recipe at Home [video]

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Best Pizzeria Pizza Dough Recipe at Home [video]

Crisp on the bottom, chewy all over, air bubbles and flavor, Pizzeria Pizza Dough Recipe at Home is no joke to achieve, but this recipe is perfection. I promise. 

The thicker you make the crust edge, the more bubbly it will be.

Homemade pizza dough that has been formed into a round pizza shape. the edges are rounded like a thick crust pizza. The dough is on a floured surface.

The Secret?

It’s all about heating the pizza steel or stone for 30-45 minutes at 550, well and allowing the dough to ferment for 12-24 hours. But let’s start at the beginning.

A ball of pizza dough with cherry tomatoes in the background.

Fermenting Pizza Dough

As that yeast is hanging out in the dough it’s creating gas bubbles (remember watching the yeast get bubbly?) from carbon dioxide. Bubbles in pizza crust make it more chewy! So think, pizza dough I want the bubbles whereas sandwich bread I want it all soft and dense, so no bubbles and I don’t want it to hang out and ferment as pizza dough does.

Picture this, a pizza gets slid onto the table in front of you and your friends and instantly you see those big bubbles, slightly blackened and softly calling your name. That’s due to perfect fermentation and perfect heat. 

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