Venison Italian Sausage and Pepperoni Bake
This easy week night meal is sure to be a family dinner staple.
Servings: 8 people*
Equipment
- Casserole dish
Ingredients
- 12 oz favorite pasta shells** cooked and drained
- 1 lb Venison Italian Sausage cooked, crumbled, excess oil drained
- 3 oz pepperoni about half a bag (or more)
- 12 oz mozzarella or more for more cheesiness
- Italian seasoning for topping
- ~28 oz Pasta Sauce***
Instructions
- If you haven't done so all ready, cook your Italian sausage. Do this by heating 2T of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Break up your sausage as it cooks. Drain any excess oil once done cooking.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- If you are making your own pasta sauce, do so now. How I made mine is in the notes section below.
- In a blender pulse together the sausage and sauce. I do this to create a meat sauce. However, if you like your sausage chunkier, you can combine the sauce and meat in a bowl instead (less dishes too!).
- In your casserole dish, place a thin layer of sauce. Sprinkle some of the cheese over it. Add half of your pepperonis.
- Combine remaining sauce and pasta.
- Add the pasta to the dish. Cover with mozzarella and remaining pepperonis. Top with Italian seasoning for extra flavor.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. For added crisp, bake on broil for 3-5 minutes or until desired crispiness. ENJOY!
Notes
*I use 2 small casserole dishes when making this. I eat one the day I make it and then before it goes in the oven, I cover the other in aluminum foil to bake later in the week for a second meal.
**I used Gourmet Texas Pasta's Pizza Pasta Shells.
*** To make my sauce I used:
28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, onion powder, red pepper flakes, sugar all to taste. Blend together in a blender.
I left it on the more tomato-er side because my Italian sausage has a lot of flavor, so when pulsed together, the sauce picks up a ton of that seasoning.