Pizza in a Pan

After trying a cheeseburger casserole last week I got to thinking what could I do with the remaining pasta I had leftover to make a delicious, simple dish.  Well, pizza is my utmost favorite food so that sent my mind into over drive.  Typically when ordering pizza I like to get a loaded veggie pizza – but my boyfriend only eats pepperoni pizza so we typically settle for pepperoni pizza so we don’t have to buy TWO pizzas, which is craziness.

I pulled up my handy dandy Weight Watchers recipe builder and started adding ingredients I’d want in this dish and was surprised to see how point friendly it was.  I jotted down the 2 ingredients I didn’t have at home to pick up at the market and off and running I went.  The great thing about this dish is you can really prepare the meat sauce beforehand – whether it be the day before or even a few hours before whipping together.  Remember the longer a sauce sits, the more flavorful it becomes!

The great thing about this dish is you get the dough action from the pasta, you get the cheesiness and you get a ton of meat and a nice blend of vegetables to make it a healthy and hearty meal.

Serves: 10

Points Plus Values (w/ cheese): 6 Points Plus

Points Plus Values (w/o cheese): 5 Points Plus

Serving size: 1 Cup

Ingredients:

- 1 1/8 pounds 93% lean ground beef

- 1 large onion (or 2 mediums), diced

- 2 small red peppers, diced

- 2 tablespoons minced garlic

- 4 ounce Hormel turkey pepperoni, quartered

- 8 oz uncooked Rotini pasta

- 2 tablespoons tomato paste

- 1 Jar Light Ragu – Tomato & Basil

- 1 can diced tomatoes (drained of almost all liquid)

- 1 cup Reduced Fat Sargento 4-Cheese Mexican (you can use mozzarella but I had this leftover from a previous recipe)

-  Italian seasoning (to taste)

-  Garlic powder (to taste)

-  Black pepper (to taste)

-  Sea salt (to taste)

Instructions:

Cook hamburger with onion and garlic in a non-stick skillet until cooked through. Break up hamburger as finely as possible while cooking.

Place red peppers in a baking dish, spritzed with Pam and bake at 350*F for about 10 minutes, until peppers are softer.

Add red peppers, quartered pepperoni, canned tomatoes and jar of Light Ragu sauce to the pan and stir to combine.  Season with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, black pepper and sea salt to taste.  I tend to not measure my dry seasonings so I eyeball … but if I had to guestimate I’d taste 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning and 1 teaspoon sea salt and black pepper.

Add in tomato paste and stir to combine, let simmer for approximately 2 minutes.

Set a pan of water onto boil, seasoned with a little bit of salt (to prevent sticking).  Once boiling add in 8 ounces of pasta and cooked until your liking.  I tend to go with al dente which is usually done in 10 minutes (I use Barilla pasta so it takes a little longer to cook).

Drain pasta and combine with cooked sauce.  Stir to combine.

Transfer contents to a large baking dish, sprinkle with 1 cup of cheese.  Place pan into a 350 degree oven and bake for roughly 10 minutes until cheese is cooked through.

All that’s left to do is enjoy!

 meat sauce

 Pasta w/o cheese

 w/ cheese