Pizza Casserole
hiding vegetables never tasted so good.
This recipe brings all the best flavours of a pepperoni pizza together without the heavy crust to weigh you down — don’t worry though, there are four kinds of cheese in here to make up for it. You can also make this dish special when you take the extra 60 seconds to make your own marinara sauce. Yup. Sixty seconds.
If you think all that’s hard to believe, wait until you realize there’s an entire large head of cauliflower and handfuls of zucchini in this dish to boot. - CFG
Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets (~1.5 lbs)
3 cups of zucchini, cut into 1.5” slices
1.5 cups of marinara sauce
3/4 cup sliced pepperoni (reserve/cut an extra ~12 slices for the top of the dish)
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 jalapeño pepper, sliced with ribs and seeds removed
1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Monterey Jack, shredded
1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
1/2 cup fresh basil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place 1 cup of water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the cauliflower florets and cover with lid. Steam for 2-3 minutes and then drain excess water. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.
Line a 10”x 10” casserole dish with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix 1.5 cups of marinara sauce with 1 package (8oz) of softened cream cheese and then pour over the cauliflower/zucchini.
Add in the sliced jalapeño pepper, 3/4 cups of sliced pepperoni, 1/2 tsp of chili pepper flakes, and half of each of the cheese mixtures (1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack, 1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan) and mix well. (I put gloves on and toss with my hands.)
Transfer mixture to prepared casserole dish and top with the remaining shredded cheeses and reserved slices of pepperoni. Bake in the oven for ~20 minutes or until the top is browned and crisped to your liking. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ~5 minutes.
Garnish with fresh basil, serve and enjoy!
Note: I made this dish the other day and didn’t have any pepperoni or zucchini on hand, so I swapped in salami, mushrooms and bell peppers and the recipe still came out delicious. This makes me think other pizza variations are definitely in order. Next on my list to try:
Ham and pineapple
Fresh tomato, banana pepper, feta
Spinach, Kalamata olive, sun-dried tomato, feta
