Meat Lovers Pasta Recipe
When your family is hungry, fill them up with a meat lovers pasta that contains three meats and three cheeses.
Hearty, filling, and tasty, but relatively inexpensive and super easy to make, this meat lovers pasta dish will satisfy even your hungriest family member.
January’s cold weather makes my family hungry. Of course, any weather makes my family hungry, so I suppose that’s not news. But in cold weather, they want hot and filling foods.
Since January is always a time for us to review our budget, and evaluate where we can save some money, we end up eating a lot of soups and casseroles. See, the grocery budget is the first place we look to save some money. Easy to do if you’re living on steak and lobster, right? Well, we’re not.
[bctt tweet=”Budget friendly and made with three cheeses and three meats, this meat lovers pasta will fill up your family! ” username=”ApronFreeCook”]
No matter how careful I am with the grocery budget, I’m always thinking that I’ve spent too much money at the grocery store. My husband says, at least we’ll eat the food. I suppose that it’s better to spend money on food than on frivolous things.
[mv_video sticky=”true” aspectRatio=”16:9″ key=”mqqood7jrjfz6ebo6f6j”]
Anyway, I’ve learned that casseroles are a good way to stretch your grocery money. The other good thing about casseroles is that I can usually get two meals out of one dish. I made up this casserole the other night and I’m thinking it might even go into a third meal.
Make It A Meal:
Start simply and serve with green salad and garlic bread.
That’s where serving a good green salad on the side comes into play. I like to chop up some ice berg lettuce, add a couple handfuls of fresh spinach and some of the left over broccoli from the previous night’s meal. Ranch dressing is a creamy way to offset the strong tomato flavor of the pasta
Variations:
Add some sliced onions, green peppers and mushrooms. Fill this meat lovers dish up with all the good veggies!
Another option is to replace the red sauce with a white Alfredo style sauce.
Of course, you can use any shape pasta that you have in the cupboard. Don’t make a special trip out to the store to buy the spiral shapes. However, pasta shapes that are mid sized work best with this hearty dish. Tiny shells and very fine spaghetti are over powered by the meat.
This dish has a strong appeal to the meat eaters in my family. Sometimes I like to notch it up just one more step for them. I’ll sprinkle bacon bits on top the cheese. Now, the folks in the family who like a lighter meal are intimidated by all that red meat.
Pin It:
If you love this recipe and want to save it for later, pin it to your Pinterest account.
When I make up this casserole, I can count on having enough left over to cover supper for another evening. If you plan on eating the left over portion in the next day or two, simply store it in the refrigerator.
Are you planning to save the extra for another week? Then I’d suggest wrapping the food tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and freeze it.
I’ve made up two smaller (8 x 8 inch) pans and baked one. The second one was wrapped and went straight into the freezer. Then, the following week or two, when I needed a meal and didn’t have time to put a lot of effort into dinner, it was ready to bake.
Meat Lovers Pasta Recipe
Ingredients:
Rotini Pasta, ground Sausage, Sausage Link, Pepperoni, Pasta Sauce, Parmesan cheese, Mozzarella/Cheddar Cheese, Oregano and Barbecue spice.
Recipe Directions:
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Brown the ground sausage. Slice the sausage link into half inch chunks. Mix pasta, sauce and meats in large pan. Sprinkle the cheeses on top. Bake and enjoy.
Meat Lovers Pasta Bake
Enough meat in this dish to satisfy the meat lover in your life! Three kinds of meat and three kinds of cheese put this pasta bake over the top!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Rotini pasta
- 1 lb Ground sausage
- 1 lb Sausage link
- 1/2 lb Pepperoni slices
- 48 ounce Pasta sauce
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 TB Oregano
- 1 TB Barbecue spice
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
Prepare pasta according to package directions.
-
Brown the ground sausage.
-
Slice the sausage link into half inch chunks.
-
Drain pasta and sausage.
-
Mix pasta, sauce and meats in large pan. Reserving some of the pepperoni slices.
-
Place in 9 x 13 baking dish.
-
Sprinkle the shredded cheeses on top the mixture.
-
Using reserved pepperoni slices, spread a layer of pepperoni on top the shredded cheese.
-
Mix spices and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over entire pan.
-
Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly, usually about 35 to 40 minutes.
Approximate Nutritional Information:
Servings Per Recipe: 12. Amount Per Serving: Calories: 598, Total Fat: 40g, Cholesterol: 115mg, Sodium: 1624mg, Total Carbs: 27g, Protein: 29g.
Originally published as syndicated column for week beginning January 7, 2013. Updated October 14, 2018 with new pictures.Â
Noel Lizotte is breaking free of corporate stress with convenience cooking! This recipe is similar to ones printed in her cookbook Apron Free Cooking which is available on the website www.apronfreecooking.com. She also writes a monthly column at www.culinarychat.net.
This column is also part of BlogHer’s January NaBloPoMo challenge, to write a post each day. You can read more blog posts here.
Follow ApronFreeCooking:
Twitter – @ApronFreeCook
This post may contain affiliate links. There are no additional costs passed on to you if you click on the links in this post. Any money earned from commission helps me cover the cost of maintaining this website.