Cheesy Pizza Pasta Bake made with any kind of short Pasta, Pizza Sauce and your favorite Toppings or Fillings for any kind of a Pizza Pasta Bake. Make it with the Works, Canadian, Vegetarian or a Meat Lovers. Baked in a Casserole for a Pizza Casserole or in a single serve Au Gratin dishes for Pizza Au Gratin.
This is the perfect dish for those who love to stack up the toppings. With a Pizza this shouldn’t be done because it affects how the dough cooks and rises, often resulting in a soggy dough. But with a Pizza Pasta Bake you can opt to go heavy on the toppings or fillings. You still want a balance between the toppings but there is a lot more room to add as little or as much as desired.
Short Pasta
Use 100 g per portion of any type of Short Pasta boiled in 2 Tbl of Sea Salt per 16 cups of Water. Cook the Pasta until just Al Dente or a little before or after depending on how firm or soft you like the final Pasta. It will only spend about 10 minutes in the oven at 450 F. Strain and place back into the pot without rinsing the Pasta to mix with everything else.
Penne Pasta
Rigatoni Pasta
Pizza Sauce
Use your favorite Pizza Sauce. For this dish I often go with the same Tomato Sauce used for the Cheeseburger Pizza Oven Sub. It results in a Beautiful Sauce that really goes well with Pizza Pasta Bakes or Pizza. The main recipe for the Quick Tomato Sauce uses Tomato Paste and Crushed Tomatoes, listed below.
For this recipe, I replaced the Tomato Paste & Crushed Tomatoes with 1×680 ml bottle of Mutti Passata and used 1/2 C of Water with Half of everything else. All the changes are listed below to make the Passata Quick Tomato Sauce also mentioned in the Quick Tomato Sauce post.
Just throw everything into a saucepot and bring to a boil while mixing.
Cheese Blend
Use a Mozzarella Cheese of high Moisture Shredded Mozzarella & Provolone at a 3:1 Ratio. It makes a big difference here and results in very nice browning and stretchiness.
Optionally drizzle lightly with Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the Cheese just the same as you would a Pizza to promote browning and offer up extra moisture to the Cheese.
Saputo Mozzarella Cheese
Run it through a Food Processor to shred. This can be stored by itself in a Freezer bag after shredding. Squeeze the air out and freeze.
Cheese Blend
Combine 3 parts shredded Mozzarella Cheese and 1 part shredded Provolone Cheese into a freezer bag. Toss around to mix evenly. Use on the Pizza Au Gratin Dishes and freeze the rest.
Pizza Pasta Bake Combinations
Add whatever you like! You can really change this up any way you like with different short Pastas and different types of Pizza Sauces. If you want the toppings a bit softer in the final dish you can sauté them to soften a bit before adding them into the bowl with the cooked and strained Pasta & Pizza Sauce. For toppings or combinations, some ideas are below.
Beef, Mushrooms, Onions and Pepperoni
The featured Image and all images through out this post was made with the below for 2 portions.
- 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
- 1 small Onion diced
- 1 can of Sliced Mushrooms
- Handful of Pepperoni diced in the filling and more whole Pepperoni on top
The Ground Beef was mixed with 1/2 tsp Beef Broth Powder, 1/4 tsp MSG, 1/8 tsp Baking Powder. The same mix that I typically use for Hamburger Patties. You can also just use two previously made and frozen Quarter Pound Burgers or just a 1/2 lbs. of Beef and cook in the pan breaking it up for the Beef Filling.
MEAT LOVERS
Add Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Ground Beef, Salami, Ham, Bacon.
VEGETARIAN
Add Tomatoes, Onions, Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Olives, and Banana Peppers.
CANADIAN CLASSIC
Bacon, Mushrooms & Pepperoni.
DELUXE
Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Green Peppers, Mushrooms, and Onions.
THE WORKS
Pepperoni, Onions, Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Ground Beef or Italian Sausage, Bacon with or without Olives. Plus any other toppings you want.
ITALIAN SAUSAGE & PEPPERS
Made with Italian Sausage, Green & Red Peppers, with Onions. You can just remove the skins and cook the Italian Sausage like Ground Beef or prepare portion as below for Mini Italian Sausage meatballs like they serve on Pizzas.
Italian Sausage Meatballs
Remove the skin from the Italian Sausages and portion out into 1/2 tsp Meatballs. Place into a pan over medium heat and cook until just cooked through, moving the meatballs around.
You can also cook these in the oven on a baking sheet while the oven is preheating to 450 F.
PEPPERONI LOVER
Only Pepperoni and lots of it! I highly recommend a very good quality Pepperoni. Add them in chopped in half, quarters, diced, or strips. Place some more whole Pepperoni slices on top before or after the Cheese.
Pepperoni
This is really the best brand I have tasted to date. These can be picked up at Sobeys, or possibly a local Italian Grocery Store. Vincenzo’s here in Waterloo Ontario has these and sells them for $5.49 CAD.
Pizza Casserole
All of the Ingredients (cooked & strained Pasta, Pizza Sauce, Toppings or Fillings) are tossed to mix evenly and placed into a Casserole dish. How big depends on how many portions you made. In general, large enough so that the filling comes up less than 2 inches to maximize on the Cheese coverage to the filling ratio.
Pizza Au Gratin
All of the Ingredients (cooked & strained Pasta, Pizza Sauce, Toppings or Fillings) are tossed to mix evenly and placed into a a single serve Au Gratin Dish. This is a very nice way to present the dish and is almost always how I serve it. Place the Au Gratin dish on a plate with a side to serve.
Au Gratin Dish
This is a single Serve Au Gratin dish I often use for Pasta Bakes. It measures out at about 8×4 and almost 2 inches high.
Pizza Pasta Bake Garnish
My favorite garnish is Parsley & Aleppo or Chili Flakes. It offers up appealing colors. Add Parmesan and/or Romano Cheese. A little bit of Oregano or Basil is nice too.
How to make a Pizza Pasta bake
For these Instructions I am using 200 g of Pasta & 400 g of Passata Quick Tomato Sauce. To adjust for the amount you want, use 100 g per portion of Short Pasta and 200 g per portion of Pizza Sauce. Add as little or as much Toppings/Fillings you want.
Boil Pasta
Bring a Pot filled with 16 Cups of Water and 2 Tbl of Sea Salt. Boil the Pasta until Al Dente. A little before or a bit longer depending on how you like the final Pasta.
Fillings
While the water is boiling and the Pasta is cooking, prepare all the filling you want in the Pizza Pasta Bake.
I’m going with 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef, 1 can of strained Mushrooms, 1 Small Onion and some chopped Pepperoni as well as some more whole Pepperoni slices to go either under or on top of the Cheese.
Pizza Sauce
Prepare the Pizza Sauce of choice. This one is the Passata Quick Tomato Sauce, using Passata instead of Tomato paste and Crushed Tomatoes.
It uses 1×680 ml bottle of Passata with 1/2 C of Water and Half of everything else in the Quick Tomato Sauce recipe. Just look for the Passata Quick Tomato Sauce section in this post.
Combine Pasta and Filling
Once the Pasta is done, strain it out but don’t rinse. Just empty it back into the Pot with the Fillings you prepared earlier.
Add Pizza Sauce
Add in the Pizza Sauce and mix well.
Place into bakeware
Either empty into a Casserole Dish or single serve Au Gratin dishes.
Pepperoni on top
Place whole Pepperoni slices on top. The Peperoni Slices can either go before the Cheese or after the cheese. Whichever you prefer.
Cheese
Top with Cheese and optionally place Pepperoni on top of Cheese if you didn’t place some on before the Cheese. Or both, It’s good Pepperoni, you do you.
Oven Bake
Place into a preheat oven for about 10 minutes. Optionally broil the top if needed for color.
Garnish
Garnish with Parsley & Aleppo or Chili Flakes. Add some Parmesan and Romano Cheese. A little bit of Basil or Oregano is good too.
Pizza Pasta Bake Sides
All of these side can be cooked up fairly quickly after the Pizza Pasta Bake is cooked and while it is resting.
Garlic Bread
Beautiful Toasted Garlic Bread. Pop it into the oven right after cooking the Pizza Casserole or Pizza Au Gratin while it cools down.
Twisty Bread
Twisty Bread brushed with Garlic Butter and a side of dipping Sauce (Donair, Pizza Sauce, Garlic Sauce).
Garlic Fingers
Cheesy Garlic Fingers with a side of Donair Sauce for dipping.
Equipment
- 1 Pot
- 2 Single Serve Au Gratin Dish or a single Casserole dish
- 1 Strainer
- 3 Bowls one for the toppings/fillings and one for portioned out Pizza Sauce and another for portioned out short pasta
- 1 Digital Scale
Ingredients
- 200 g Short Pasta - 100 g per portion
- 400 g Pizza Sauce - 200 g per portion
- As Desired Pizza Toppings
- As Desired Mozzarella & Provolone Cheese Blend - 3:1 Mozzarella to Provolone
Pasta Water
- 16 C Water
- 1-2 Tbl Sea Salt
Instructions
- Weigh out the Pasta for the amount you want to make and boil short Pasta in 16 Cups of Water with 1-2 Tbl Sea Salt until Al Dente. A bit shorter or longer depending on how soft or firm you like the final Pasta. While the Water is boiling and while boiling the Pasta. Preheat the oven to 450 F and prepare the Pizza Sauce, Toppings/Fillings and Cheese.
- Once the Pasta is cooked, strain the Pasta and don't rinse. Empty the Pasta back into the Pot along with the Pizza Sauce and Toppings. Mix to combine and portion out into single serve Au Gratin dishes or a Casserole.
- Top with Mozzarella Cheese blend and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Optionally broil the top for color if needed.
- Remove and let rest 10 minutes before serving. Optionally garnish with Parsley & Aleppo or Chili Flakes and some Parmesan and/or Romano Cheese.