Easy Pizza Casserole

 Here's a really simple recipe that's quick to throw together for a weeknight meal. It's perfect for the cooking novice because you really don't even need any experience. You just layer your ingredients, and then bake it! See? Easy!
 TBH, I have no idea where I found this recipe. Hmm... come to think of it, I've said that a lot lately, haven't I? Well, what can I say? I'm always seeing recipes and then setting them aside for another time until I finally get around to trying them. I guess, with this one, I saved the recipe, but forgot to note where I got it. Oh, well, I'm sure whoever came up with it won't mind that I'm sharing it. It's absolutely a "how can this not be good?" recipe. Delicious and hearty and always hits the spot! Serious yum.

1 can biscuit dough, cut into pieces

1 jar (15 ounce) of your favorite pizza sauce

1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

1 package (8 ounces or 226 gr) of sliced pepperoni

2 cups (180 gr) shredded mozzarella cheese

12 large basil leaves, whole or roughly chopped

1/2 cup (45 gr) Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat your oven to 375 °F. 

Lightly grease a 8" x 8" casserole pan. Add the biscuits dough pieces to the casserole.

Add the tomato sauce, spreading it evenly over the biscuits pieces and saving 1/2 cup for later. Place the tomato slices and 1/2 the pepperoni evenly on top and sprinkle the leftover tomato sauce. Add the basil leaves. Add the mozzarella cheese and top with the Parmesan cheese and remaining pepperoni. Bake your casserole for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. 

Tips:
Switch up the ingredients! Sauteed onions, mushrooms, peppers, sausage, even ham and pineapple! Add whatever pizza toppings you like!
Feeding a crowd? Double everything and bake it in a 9x13 pan! 
To turn regular marinara sauce into pizza sauce, just add a few shakes of dried oregano. Boom! Pizza sauce!

Pizza Bombs

Ok, so, if you're one of my regular readers, you know I always see recipes on TV or social media and then I tuck them away until I get around to posting them. This is one of those posts! I saw this, (on FB, I think) and then I made them for a little get together. Great! Awesome! Delicious! Love 'em! Took the picture to save it until posting, perfect. But here's the thing... I have no idea what recipe I used! I specifically remember that the recipe called for brushing the tops with pizza sauce before baking (as you can see in the photo), but I can't seem to find that video anywhere. Ah well. What can ya do???
 So here's the deal. I'm gonna use the picture from when I made them, but I'm gonna share a different version, fair enough? This recipe is from a Tasty video, and it's pretty much the same thing I did, only they're brushed with seasoned garlic butter instead of pizza sauce. Works for me!! Either way, they're amazing and fabulous and they're perfect for Super Bowl parties or tailgating or just anytime you have a few friends over. And btw, you might consider making a double batch.
They seem to disappear quickly!


1 can (16.3 oz) biscuit dough
pizza sauce
pepperoni
mozzarella, cut into cubes
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
shredded Parmesan cheese, for topping
extra pizza sauce for dipping


Cut each biscuit in half. Press each half into a circle with your thumb. Place a small dollop of pizza  sauce, 1 pepperoni, and 1 cube of mozzarella on each biscuit round. Bring the edges up and over, pressing them together and being sure to leave no gaps for the filling to leak out. Lay the pizza bombs on a baking sheet lined with greased parchment paper.
 Combine melted butter, garlic, salt and pepper, and Italian seasoning in a small bowl. Brush the butter mixture onto each pizza bomb and top with Parmesan. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes (until biscuits have nicely browned). Once pizza bombs are cool enough to handle, serve immediately.

Tips:
There are as many variations as there are pizza toppings. Not a fan of pepperoni? Choose a different topping! Just cook whatever toppings you choose before you put them into the center of the biscuit dough. My favorites are mushrooms, bacon, peppers, and onions. Saute them in a skillet, drain them of any excess fat, then proceed as directed. The thing to remember is not to overfill them. Just be sure you're able to close the dough around everything, and they'll turn out fine!
Btw, if you want to brush them just as I did with pizza sauce instead of garlic butter, go for it!
Oh, and one other thing.. to turn regular marinara sauce into pizza sauce, just add oregano!!

Joey's Pizza Lasagna

 Ever since I started this cooking blog, I've tried to post recipes that I think people would like to cook. It's not enough for someone to look at a recipe and think "That looks delicious"", I want someone to think "I can make that!" So I looked back on the most popular posts over the last 8 years. The most popular recipe to date is Crock Pot Pizza Pasta. So I figured, why not take that same idea and do it as a baked lasagna instead of in the crock pot? I basically did the same process, but with a few minor tweaks and I must say, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!
 The idea was that each layer of lasagna noodles would basically be its own pizza, with sauce, toppings and cheese. So the first layer was sausage and bacon, the next layer was peppers and onions, the next layer was mushrooms, and the top layer, pepperoni! Then the whole thing is baked until bubbly and fabulous. Pretty cool, huh?  I chose these toppings because they're my favorite, but you can absolutely do whatever pizza toppings you like! Do a meat-lovers' pizza, do a veggie pizza, do just one topping, anything will work!
 Hopefully you'll see this recipe and think "I can make that!!" Because, do you know what??
YOU CAN!

Joey's Go-To Homemade Pizza Sauce, or jarred, or your own
1 lb lasagna noodles
1 lb Italian sausage, mild or hot
1/2 lb thick cut bacon, chopped
2 bell peppers, any color, coarsely chopped
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 lb baby bella mushrooms (or other mushroom of choice)
1 lbs sliced pepperoni
2 lbs shredded mozzarella cheese

 Heat oven to 350ºF.
Fill a wide shallow pan with very hot water. Place the lasagna noodles in the water to soak while you prepare the other ingredients.
Remove the sausage from casings and brown in a skillet. I browned the bacon in the same pan. Drain excess grease.  Set the meat aside. In the same pan, saute the onions and peppers (I used some of the drained bacon fat) until slightly softened and caramelized. Set aside. Do the same with the mushrooms or other toppings of your choice.
 By now your noodles should be pliable but not too mushy.
 In a 9x13 baking dish, place a layer of sauce, then a layer each of noodles, more sauce, toppings and cheese. Layer the toppings in whatever order you'd like. Continue making layers until all of your ingredients are used up. End with a layer or pepperoni on top of the last layer of cheese.
 Cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 15 or until the cheese is lightly golden and the pepperoni is sizzly. (is that a word? I'm going with it.)
 Let it rest for a good 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Tips:
 One of the best things about making lasagna is that its a total do ahead. It's actually BETTER if you do it the night before, and then just heat it up when you want to serve. If you don't want to heat it twice, you can absolutely assemble it the night before and then bake it just before you want to serve it. I do recommend letting it sit for 10 to 15 minutes after removing it from the oven because then it'll have a chance to set up a bit, which will result in nice perfect squares of lasagna that stay together.
 Another thing that will help your lasagna stay together (instead of the top half of your slice of lasagna sliding off) is to layer your noodles in different directions. So, for instance, if you're doing 4 layers of noodles, layers one and three should go longways in your pan, and layers two and four should go across. Just cut the noodles to fit. Yes, it takes a few extra minutes, but it'll keep your layers locked together.
You can definitely use regular marinara sauce, if that's what you have on hand. Just add a little dried oregano to make it more like pizza sauce!
 Btw, I purposely didn't include ricotta cheese in this lasagna, just because I wanted it to taste more like pizza, but you do you! If you want to add ricotta, go for it!

Joey's Go-To Homemade Pizza Sauce

 I was recently making a Pizza Lasagna, and I realized that I didn't have a go-to pizza sauce recipe. So I figured I'd come up with one! Just as I usually do, I looked up a few different recipes and took what I liked from each one. And here it is! Now I have my go-to recipe and I hope you'll give it a try. Of course you can use it for homemade pizza or Crock Pot Pizza Pasta, but try it as a dipping sauce for Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza Puffs, or your favorite mozzarella sticks. You could also do mini pizzas in the toaster oven on English muffins with a little shredded mozzarella cheese on top. It's also fabulous just as a spicy sauce poured over your favorite pasta. Hopefully this will now be YOUR go-to pizza sauce recipe too! Enjoy!

3 tbs olive oil
3 tbs butter
1 small onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cracked fennel seeds
2 (28oz) cans Tuttoroso crushed tomatoes
2 large whole sprigs fresh basil
1 tbs sugar
S&P to taste

Add the first 7 ingredients to a heavy saucepot over medium heat. Stir and saute for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients. Increase the heat to bring it up to a boil, then reduce it to a low simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. That's all there is to it! Can be made in large batches and frozen, if desired.

Tips:
 For the fennel seeds, I used a mortar and pestle to crack them and crush them a bit. You can also place them in a ziploc bag and use something heavy the bash them up so you won't have big seeds floating around in your sauce.
I leave the sprigs of basil whole so you can easily fish them out after the sauce is finished cooking. If you want, you can chop them up and just leave 'em in the sauce.
 I usually don't mention specific brands, but in this case, I only use Tuttoroso. For one thing, all crushed tomatoes aren't created equally. Sometimes they're very chunky, more like stewed tomatoes, other times they're almost like puree. Tuttoroso crushed tomatoes are the exact texture I like for pizza sauce. And I seem to remember seeing on America's Test Kitchen that they were the best tasting ones too. I could be completely wrong on that, but I'm going with it. If you don't have Tuttoroso crushed tomatoes, then I recommend using any favorite canned whole tomatoes and crushing them to your desired texture.