Supreme Pizza Pasta Bake |Cooking With Amanda

We eat a lot of pizza here in our house. We spent many Saturday nights tweaking and perfecting our homemade pizza dough recipe, and now it's a staple weekend meal around here. But here's the thing. Homemade pizza dough takes a bit of planning to make. You've got to start it the night before so it develops flavor. Then you have to mix it up in the afternoon and let it rise so that the dough is ready for some awesome toppings come dinner-time. I don't mind the extra effort… especially when the pizzas are so darned tasty! But I wanted to find a way to adapt this pizza recipe into a weeknight meal. Say hello to the supreme pizza pasta bake!

Truthfully, I set out to create an amazing pasta bake loaded with all sorts of tasty toppings. But then my wife reminded me that I had an extra stick of pepperoni hanging out in the fridge that I should use. (Who has sticks of extra pepperoni hanging out in their fridge? Apparently I do.) So the pepperoni went in. Then I noticed we had an extra bell pepper left over from a batch of stuffed pepper soup. So that pepper went in, too. Add a little ricotta-egg-basil mixture (aka lasagna filling), and all of a sudden I just wanted to grab a fork and dive head first into that cast iron skillet!

So I know there is some debate as to what toppings belong on a supreme pizza. I took a bit of liberty with my toppings, but feel free to add in your favorites. I don't particularly like black olives on pizza, so I left those out. And I didn't happen to have any mushrooms, so those didn't make it in either. But that's the beauty of this supreme pizza pasta bake. You can throw in whatever ingredients you have laying around. I mean, you've got to have the pasta, marinara and cheese, but after that, the skillet is your canvas. Paint up a masterpiece… and then eat it!

What are your favorite pizza toppings? Do olives belong on a pizza, or just in a martini?

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Supreme Pizza Pasta Bake Recipe

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Ingredients

1 pound penne
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground italian sausage
1 medium white onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
6 ounces pepperoni, diced
1 24 ounce jar marinara sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than the package instructions; drain and set pasta aside.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Meanwhile, add the olive oil into a large cast iron skillet; place skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the Italian sausage, onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is browned and onions have softened slightly. Drain grease from skillet.
In a separate bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese and dried basil; stir until smooth.
Add cooked pasta, diced pepperoni, marinara sauce and ricotta mixture to the skillet. Stir until well mixed.
Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly on top.
Place skillet in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until mozzarella has fully melted.