I recently was without an oven for a few weeks while the repair people were waiting on parts. For someone who cooks frequently and enjoys the convenience of functioning appliances, it was a challenge.
I use my oven all the time to make homemade bread, roast vegetables and bake frozen pizza. Don°®¶¹app™t judge me °®¶¹app“ the latter is a major food group in my home.
So I put on my thinking cap and came up with some alternative meal ideas. I used a small toaster oven for what I could, bought some crusty bread at a bakery and pulled out my slow cooker for a couple chickens I picked up on sale at the store.
A few days into the Great Oven Outage of 2024, I was seriously craving pizza. I could have ordered one, but that can be expensive.
I remembered that a certain pizza chain used to have a pasta bake on the menu that was basically pasta with every pizza topping under the hut, so to speak. I made something similar a few times myself, but again, my usual recipe required an oven.
And so this One-Pot Pizza Pasta recipe was born. It gives you the flavors of a supreme pizza and doesn°®¶¹app™t leave a ton of dishes to clean.
The great thing about it is you can use a range of ingredients to suit your taste in pizza toppings and pasta shapes. I had a jar of marinara sauce already in my pantry, but you might swap it out for another pasta sauce or even pizza sauce.
One-Pot Pizza Pasta
Makes 4 servings.
½ pound Italian sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small green pepper, diced
½ cups mushrooms, sliced or quartered
3 ounces pepperoni slices
3 cups stock or water
8 ounces dry cavatappi
1½ cup marinara sauce
Heat a 5-quart Dutch oven or large pot with a lid over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and break up. Let the sausage brown for about a minute, then add oil, onion, garlic and green pepper. Give it a stir then continue sautéing until the sausage is cooked and the vegetables are softened.
Add mushrooms and pepperoni and continue cooking for about 1 minute.
Add stock and pasta. Stir in pasta sauce.
Increase the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Stir, and reduce heat to medium high. Cover and let simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove lid and continue simmering about 2 minutes or until pasta is just shy of being totally cooked.
Remove from heat and let sit uncovered to finish cooking pasta. The sauce will thicken slightly as the pasta sits.
Recipe Swap appears occasionally in °®¶¹app. Corey McMaken is a home cook, not a food expert. To share a comment or favorite recipe for possible inclusion, email cmcmaken@jg.net or write to Corey McMaken, c/o °®¶¹app, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802.
