It’s April and that means here in Minnesota we’re entering spring and the weather is warming up. It’s the perfect time to enjoy one last casserole before grilling and summer meal season is upon us. This recipe is simple but nostalgic for me.
I first had spaghetti pizza at my [then future] mother-in-law’s house when I was in high school. Spaghetti pizza basically uses pasta as the crust for pizza, so it’s a blank canvas. You can top it with whatever you’d top pizza with, which in our house is pretty boring. My husband only likes pepperoni, or rather he only will eat pepperoni left over. So unless I want to eat all the leftovers, we make pepperoni pizza or in this case spaghetti pizza.
This recipe reheats really well for work and I even like to make a giant pan and put individual servings in the freezer to take to work. The size I’m making today makes about 4 servings.
Here’s what you need:
Boil 4 servings of spaghetti (for an 8×8 pan). Don’t forget to salt your water before dropping the pasta. I usually cook this a minute or 2 less than what I would if I were serving spaghetti since it will cook a little more in the oven.
Drain the pasta and put it right into the pan (do not rinse).
Add as much spaghetti sauce as you like and stir it together.
Drizzle a little pizza sauce on the top. This will give it a little more zing than spaghetti sauce alone and give it a nod to being a ‘pizza’. Mix the pizza sauce in just on the top layer of noodles – I do this because it’s like smearing a layer of sauce on top of the pizza crust, which in this case is the saucy noodles.
Add your toppings – for us that is just pepperoni. Feel free to add whatever toppings you would add to your favorite pizza
Then comes the cheese.
Pop it in the oven at 375 for about 25 minutes until the cheese is golden brown and everything is hot.
Cut it and serve it just like a casserole and dig In!
- Spaghetti, 4 servings
- Spaghetti sauce
- Pizza sauce
- Your Favorite Pizza Toppings
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Preheat the oven to 375.
- Cook the pasta for about 1-2 minutes less than package directions. Drain and put the hot pasta into your pan. An 8x8 pan is about 4 servings of pasta, a 9x13 pan is about 8.
- Mix in the spaghetti sauce until the pasta has as much sauce as you like.
- Add some pizza sauce and mix just into the top layer of the pasta.
- Top with your favorite pizza toppings and cheese.
- Bake for about 25 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.
- Cool for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
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