This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Jazz up pizza night with this Pizza Casserole. This freezer friendly pizza pasta casserole is one recipe that the kids will be begging for more.
This easy pizza casserole recipe is a kid pleaser. My entire family devoured it and raved about how great it was. This pizza pasta casserole also freezes great so you can easily make two batches and toss one in the freezer for an easy freezer meal.
Good and easy recipe. It was a hit with the whole family. I added green peppers, onions, and mushrooms too. Will definitely make this again.
-Casey B
Are you looking for more easy fall recipes to freeze, check out these freezer recipes? If your family loves casseroles, make this Hamburger Potato Casserole or this Hamburger Casserole.
Ingredients
- Ground Beef – We used lean ground beef or add Italian Sausage for even more flavor
- Pepperoni – You can also use turkey pepperoni
- Mozzarella cheese – Use freshly shredded cheese
- Crushed Tomatoes – Try Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe
- Garlic Salt – See The Best Garlic Salt Substitute
- Italian Seasoning – Learn How to Make Italian Seasoning Recipe
- Penne Pasta – Use any type of short pasta
- Parmesan cheese – Use shredded parmesan cheese
Scroll to the recipe card for the full recipe details.
How to Make Easy Pizza Casserole Recipe
Step 1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook ground beef and drain any sausage in the large skillet over medium heat.
Step 2 – Pour in the crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and the garlic salt large bowl. Stir to combine.
Step 3 – Meanwhile boil pasta in a large pot according to directions but cook to al dente in lightly salted water, meaning you want the pasta to be a firm bite and undercooked.
Step 4 – Drain pasta and pour cook pasta in a 9×13 baking dish.
Step 5 – Poor mixture over the pasta.
Step 6 – Top pasta mixture with half the Mozzarella cheese.
Step 7 – Lay half the pepperonis on top.
Step 8 – Then later the remaining pasta, meat sauce, cheese and pepperoni slices.
Step 9 – Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
Step 10 – Cover the prepared casserole dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Step 11 – Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes until bubbly and brown.
Step 12 – Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then serve with your favorite pizza toppings.
Pizza Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (or Italian Sausage)
- 6 oz pepperoni
- 3 cups Mozzarella cheese
- 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (or 2 15 oz cans of crushed tomatoes)
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 16 oz penne pasta
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown the ground beef and drain any sausage.
- Pour in the crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and the garlic salt. Stir to combine.
- Meanwhile boil pasta according to directions but cook to al dente, meaning you want the pasta to be firm and undercooked.
- Drain pasta and pour half of the pasta in a 9×13 baking dish.
- Spoon half the meat mixture over the pasta.
- Top with half the Mozzarella cheese.
- Lay half the pepperonis on top.
- Then later the remaining pasta, meat sauce, cheese and pepperoni.
- Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes until bubbly and brown.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then serve.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Recipe Tips
- Pasta – When preparing the pasta make sure to not overcook it. It will finish cooking in the oven. I like to cook the pasta al dente or according to the package.
- Ground Beef – We recommend draining any grease from the beef before mixing it with the other ingredients.
- Prepare baking dish – Spray the baking dish with cooking spray for an easy cleanup.
- Cover Casserole – Cover the casserole with foil before placing in the flavor. This locks in the flavor and prevents the casserole from burning. We like to remove the foil for the last 15 minutes so the cheese gets brown and bubbly.
Substitutions and Additions
- Meat – We used ground beef in this recipe, but you can easily use Italian Sausage. Also substitute with ground turkey or do half turkey and half ground beef.
- Sauce – We made our sauce out of crushed tomatoes, but you can also use a jar pizza sauce or marinara sauce if you prefer. Spaghetti sauce would also work with this pasta recipe.
- Pasta – Use your favorite pasta. Bowtie pasta, rotini or rigatoni pasta would be a good substitute to use.
- Cheese – Mozzarella is our favorite cheese to use but you can also mix in some parmesan cheese or use an Italian blend cheese.
- Vegetables – You can easily sneak in some veggies such as slice fresh mushrooms, black olives, green bell pepper and onions.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Recommendations
- Easy Ramen Noodle Salad Recipe
- Creamy Broccoli Salad Recipe
- How to Steam Broccoli in the Microwave
- Easy Parmesan Roasted Zucchini Recipe
- Oven Roasted Parmesan Asparagus
With an easy casserole dish and an easy side dish you can have dinner ready in no time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make the easy pizza pasta casserole recipe in a tin toil pan according to direction above. However, instead of baking, cover with plastic wrap and foil and allow to cool.
Once cooled, freeze.
To bake, remove from freezer the day before you want to eat it and allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour covered, and 15 minutes uncovered.
We recommend storing leftovers in an airtight container. Place in the refrigerator for about 3 to 4 days.
This makes a delicious lunch the next day as the ingredients really marinate together.
When you are ready to reheat, place the casserole in a microwave safe dish and reheat. You can also reheat in the oven at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.
More Pizza Recipes to try
Easy Pizza
Biscuit Pizza
Quick and Easy Breakfast
Breakfast Pizza
Easy Pizza
Pizza Pocket Recipe
Easy Slow Cooker
Crock Pot Pizza Casserole
We love to hear from you. If you make Pizza Casserole Recipe, please leave us a comment or a star review.
Overall dish is good but definitely needs more sauce!
Thanks for sharing Becky! I’m glad you enjoyed and it’s definitely easy to add extra sauce next time you make it.
really good
The whole family loved this recipe.
Yay! So glad it was a winner!
After freezing…how long to bake? Thaw it first?
Thank you!
Hey Carol – I allow it to defrost it out completely at room temperature and then bake based on the instructions.
It was so delicious!
We love pizza pasta casserole! Easy, inexpensive and a crowd pleaser. I love to do this recipe when our kids have friends over!
This was absolutely delicious. Everybody loved it. For us it made 6 generous servings or 8 “regular” servings. We used pepperoni, onion and mushrooms between layers of pasta. Next time I might try stirring the tomato sauce into the pasta before spreading the pasta because drizzling the tomato sauce made it hard to get all the pasta covered.
Amazing recipe
Such a yummy casserole!
Me and my family loved this!
Incredible recipe! My son loves pizza and this is perfect for him!
This recipe was a total hit! My whole family went back for seconds — even the picky eaters. Will definitely make it again!
I just made this and it’s in the freezer for serving company next week. It looks delicious! I had a little trouble getting the pasta layers completely covered with the sauce. I wonder if it would work better to mix the pasta and sauce together then spoon it into the dish?
Annette – I think that mixing them together before adding it to the pan will work great. Thank you so much for the positive review!
Good one! We enjoyed this recipe very much.
Hi Carrie,
If I use pizza sauce instead of crushed tomatoes, how much do you think I’d need?
Jamie – I recommend using approximately the same amount, so 28 ounces of pizza sauce would work great!
This looks delicious! What do you think about adding some Ricotta between the layers?
Good and easy recipe. It was a hit with the whole family. I added green peppers, onions, and mushrooms too. Will definitely make this again.
I tried this recipe for a birthday dinner for my granddaughter. My grandkids and their parents loved it! Will make it again.
My husband and I are planning on having leftovers for dinner. What temperature and for how long should I warm it in the oven?
I thought it was good but with a few adjustments, we think it might be really much better. For instance, I would add 50% more sauce and use SWEET Italian sausage.
Thanks so much for commenting!
Could I substitute cooked ground sausage for the pepperoni? I’d also like to add mushrooms.
Yes you can! It would be delicious
Family liked it this will be a keeper, I give it a thumbs up
I love this recipe this is the second time I am making it
This time I use macaroni instead of penne the store didn’t have it in stock and I use one can of crush tomatoes and the other tomatoes sauce it still was Great
This was really good! Kids had 2nds and 3rds!!
I would like to make freezer meals for a widower. Since he is alone, he would never need a huge casserole. Any idea on baking directions on this if I made smaller sized servings?
Loved this, but the next time I will not cook the whole amount of Penne. Maybe 10-12 oz. It was a little dry. I didn’t layer anything but the cheeses. We mixed all the topping in the meat mixture. But I will definitely fix this again!
I made the Pizza casserole and am loving it so much.
Thanks for the recipe.
See a ‘PRINT YOUR PIZZA CASSEROLE BELOW” comment, But DO NOT find a way to PRINT.
In the recipe card on the post, there is a print button right below the photo that will allow you to print this recipe. Thank you!
Love this recipe!!!! Came across Carroe making it in a live one time and had to try it!!! The family loved it!! I love it! It’s a keeper in our house!!
Can you make the casserole the day before you will bake it
Yes, this is great to make ahead. Store in the refrigerate and then bake the same time as in the recipe.
Is this 16 oz uncooked penne ? Seems like a lot of pasta.
Yes, I use 16 oz of penne pasta for this recipe. Thanks.
This is a big favorite in my house. Question for you all tho, do you use fresh mozzarella or shredded mozzarella like kraft or sargentos? I read fresh sometimes makes it ‘wetter’ but I usually use fresh.
I like to use fresh and shred my own as it melts easier and tastes better in my opinion but you can use the pre-shredded too.
We make several of these every couple of months, freeze them, and use them on Family Night Fridays instead of pizza! Delish!
Great site, I love the recipes and how you have made it super easy to view and print a recipe! Thanks.
How long should I cook if baking directly out of the freezer?
Thanks!
Hello! I live in a country wife you cannot find crushed tomatoes. What would you suggest to substitute instead? Thank you!
I made this using pizza sauce and cut back to about 12oz of the penne. It was delicious!! One off my favorite recipes now!
This was really good! I didn’t know what to make, and I only had so much time, but knew I had pizza fixings. So I looked up “pizza casserole” and your recipe came up first. I wanted something I could make with ground beef. Perfect!
This was so quick and easy! I only had egg noodles, I used one can of pizza sauce, one can of tomato sauce. Two cups of mozzarella, most of the pepperoni left over from our French bread pizza, I used Parmesan packets from ordering out, haha… it all came together nicely. I will keep this one! Thanks!
Whoops used marinara instead of crushed tomatoes, took a taste test when I took the foil off and so far so good! Thanks for this recipe!
Can you use pizza sauce instead of crushed tomatoes
Elizabeth – Yes, I think that pizza sauce would be delicious in this recipe instead of the crushed tomatoes. Thank you.
I love this recipe. I just use wide egg noodles instead. I make it at least once a week
Pamela – Thank you for sharing. I’m glad you enjoy it.
This recipe is amazing. My mother in law seen and wanted to try it so bad that she bought all of the ingredients and brought it to my house lol. She isn’t much of a cook so anytime she wants to try something new she brings it to me. Usually she is very very picky so I am even more amazed at how much she loves it!! The day after we had dinner she bought the stuff for three more servings and had me prep them to be frozen so she could just pop them in the oven. It was so funny. This is awesome, my kids love it too lol. A hit for the entire family 🙂
So what do we think about layering in the crockpot and then cook on low for 3 hours?
Yes, I think that would work great. I would cook it in the crock pot for 2 1/2-3 hours until the pasta is done. Thank you!
Should I leave my noodles uncooked if I am just prepping it for freezer meal? I do that with my lasagna.
I usually cook them for this recipe. Thank you!
Am I reading that right? The serving size is 6g???
The entire recipe serves 6. Thank you!
Ah…..I think you mean to ” thaw in the refrigerator” not ” thaw in the freezer…” ha ha
Mar – Thanks for letting me know. I have corrected the post 🙂
I love this Pizza Pasta Casserole. Making it for the third time tonight. So tasty and easy to make. Thank you for this recipe.