The Best EASY Pizza Casserole Recipe (Prepped In 10 Minutes)

This pizza casserole is unbelievably delicious. It combines all of your favorite parts of a pizza, like pepperoni, melted mozzarella cheese, and pizza sauce to create a dish that's to die for. The best part though is that this pizza pasta casserole recipe is so easy to make. In fact, it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare, and then the oven takes care of the rest.

The Best Pizza Casserole

This pizza casserole literally creates a pizza in pasta form, and it's just so, so good!

Instead of pizza dough, this casserole uses al dente pasta noodles and seasoned ground beef to form the base of the dish. Then, the noodles and beef are coated in pizza sauce and topped with melty mozzarella cheese and slices of pepperoni, just like a pizza.

Honestly, once you get a taste of this pizza pasta casserole, you'll want to make it for dinner every single night. I mean, it combines two of the best comfort foods - pizza and pasta - so what's not to love about it?!

Plus, this pizza casserole recipe is super easy to make. In fact, just 3 simple steps are all you'll have to follow, and then you'll have yourself some pasta pizza everyone will love - especially the kids. Seriously, my 2 year old can't get enough of this stuff.

By the way, while your pasta pizza is baking, you can make this Italian cheese bread to go with it. If you dip it into the pasta, it's kind of like eating a regular pizza. Either way though, it's so, so good and it pairs perfectly with this casserole.

Ingredients

This easy pizza casserole recipe uses all simple ingredients - most of which are found in a regular pizza. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you have most - if not all - of them at home already.

Anyway, here's what you'll need to make this pizza pasta casserole:

• 1 pound ground beef,
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
• 14 oz. jar pizza sauce (or marinara sauce)
• ¾ cup water
• 3 cups rotini pasta, measure before cooking
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided 
• ¼ cup pepperoni, divided

Simple stuff, right?!

By the way, you can use many of these same ingredients to make my famous pizza dip. It's basically pizza in dip form, and you can use anything you want to eat it, like crackers, tortilla chips, or bread.

Ingredient Substitutions and Suggestions

While I recommend making this pizza casserole recipe with the ingredients, I listed above, there are definitely some substitutions you can make and still end up with delicious results. 

First, let's talk pasta. You can really use any kind of pasta that you want to make this pizza casserole, but I suggest using either rotini, penne, or rigatoni. I've used all 3 to make it, and each time the results have been great.

As far as ground beef goes, you can substitute it with ground chicken, ground turkey, ground pork, or even Italian sausage. Or, if you want to make this pasta like a meat lovers pizza, you can use a combination of all of 'em and also add in some bacon bits!

For the sauce, I, of course, used pizza sauce. But, just so you know, marinara sauce or even your favorite pasta sauce will also work great in this recipe too.

Lastly, as far as the toppings go, some other great additions - besides pepperoni - are sliced mushrooms, red bell peppers (or any colored bell peppers), green peppers, or sliced black olives. Basically, any of your favorite pizza toppings you would normally get on your pizza, you can add to this pizza pasta casserole!

How to Make Pizza Casserole

Now, as I mentioned earlier, this pizza casserole recipe is super simple to whip up.

The only thing you really have to do is cook the pasta and beef, then the rest of the time is just letting it bake in the oven.

Anyway, let's not waste any more time, let's get cooking!

Step 1: Cook the Pasta and Beef

First things first, you're going to cook the three cups of pasta according to the package directions.

Once the pasta is cooked to your desired doneness, you can drain it and set it aside.

Now, while the noodles are cooking, you can set a skillet over medium-high heat, add the ground beef to it, and break it apart. Then, add the onion, garlic, and Italian seasoning into the skillet as well, and mix everything until combined. Cook all of the ingredients until the beef browns on all sides, and stir frequently as you do. This will help ensure everything cooks evenly. 

Lastly, once the beef has cooked, you can drain the excess grease from the skillet and set it aside for later.

Step 2: Build the Pizza Casserole

By now, the pasta and beef should be cooked and ready to go, so you can preheat your oven to 350°F (180ºC) and spray a deep casserole dish with some cooking spray. I used an 8x8 inch square casserole dish, but anything similar in size will work.

Anyway, now you can mix together the pizza sauce and water in a large bowl, and then add the al dente pasta as well as the cooked ground beef, half of the cheese, half of the pepperoni slices, and all of your favorite pizza toppings. Then, just give those ingredients a good mix until they're well combined and coated in sauce.

Now, after you've done that, you can add all of that pizza pasta deliciousness to your prepared casserole dish and top it with the rest of the mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

Step 3: Bake The Casserole

Once the pizza casserole is assembled you'll want to cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and then bake it for 20 minutes. Then, after that amount of time, you'll want to continue baking it without the foil for a few minutes - just until the cheese is ooey-gooey and has turned slightly golden brown. 

Finally, after it's cooked, just let it cool for a couple of minutes, then serve it warm and enjoy!

How to Store Pizza Casserole

This recipe for pizza casserole makes about 6 servings, so there's a good chance you'll end up with some leftovers.

Speaking of leftovers, if you have some you can transfer them to an airtight container and store 'em in the fridge for about 3-4 days.

How to Reheat Pizza Pasta Casserole

I'm not going to lie this pizza casserole is delicious cold. And you'll especially think that if you love eating cold pizza. And, spoiler alert, I love cold pizza.

Anyway, if cold pizza isn't your thing - it's definitely not my wife's - then you can easily reheat this pizza pasta casserole a number of different ways.

First, if you want to reheat it the fastest way possible, you can heat it up in the microwave in 30-second increments. Just cook it until the cheese is melted and it's heated through - it usually takes about 2 minutes for a single serving.

Alternatively, you can reheat the pasta pizza in a skillet with a little oil and cook it for about 3-5 minutes over medium heat - until it's warm.

Also, if you're planning to reheat a few servings, the best way to do so is by putting the pasta pizza back in a baking dish and warming it in the oven at 350°F for about 10 minutes - or until the cheese melts again and the casserole is warm throughout. 

Wrapping It Up

Well, that's how to make pizza casserole!

This easy pizza casserole recipe seriously comes in the clutch if you're craving pasta or pizza since you get the best of both worlds all in one dish. It really satisfies both cravings and it's an especially great dinner option for busy weeknights since it's so easy to make.

Anyway, I hope you and your family enjoy this delicious pizza casserole recipe as much as we do at our house. As always, if you give this recipe a try, let me know how it went in the comments below.

More Casserole Recipes

If you're looking for some more delicious casserole recipes to try next we have a ton on the blog already!

Here are some of our most popular ones:

• Stuffed pepper casserole
• Pork chop casserole
• Hamburger potato casserole
• Ham and potato casserole
• Cheesy meatball casserole
• John Wayne casserole
  
• Taco pasta bake

Oh, and for even more tasty tastiness, don't forget to check out our Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. We post new recipes on them every day.

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