Pepperoni Pizza Casserole

By Susan52

Ingredients

• 1 pound of pasta (I used medium shells)
• 1 large jar of spaghetti sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 small onion chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Pepperoni slices *See note below
• Large container of Ricotta cheese **See note below

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 30mins
Adapted from thecuttingedgeofordinary.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cook the onions in the olive oil until just translucent. Add in the hamburger and cook until browned. Drain off any excess fat.

Boil your noodles in well salted water and cook until al dente. Rinse under cold water. Set aside.

Cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with sauce. Add half the noodles, half the meat, half of the ricotta and half the sauce. I just dotted the sauce all over and then used a spoon to spread it out a little. Layer on a generous amount of sliced pepperoni. Top with half the of mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers. Cover the top with the pepperoni slices.

Now cover with foil (spray the bottom of your foil with cooking spray so it won’t stick to the pepperoni) and bake at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes. Remove the foil during the last 15 minutes. Let sit 15 minutes before digging in.

*Note: I was afraid the pepperoni would be too greasy in this dish so this is what I did. I put a single layer of pepperoni on three layers of paper towel folded in half and microwaved them for 20 seconds. When they came out of the microwave I patted the excess grease off with another paper towel. I stacked them up and sliced them in thirds. I thought this would make it easier than biting into a whole pepperoni slice. I made 3 batches of pepperoni in total.

**Note: When I use ricotta in most dishes, I usually add 1 to 2 eggs, depending on the size of the container I’m using. For this I used 1 egg, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and ¼ cup grated Parmesan. I used ¾ of the large container of ricotta.