I have an Italian-American husband, so when I cook comfort food it's usually something like pizza, lasagna or ravioli. I've just now been married long enough that I no longer hear about how his grandmother from the old country used to spend all day in the kitchen, covered with flour, making pasta dough from scratch and why do I buy it at the store instead? š¤£ Because I... have another job, honey, and she didn't? Oh, the joys of marriage.
We have someone in our house who can't eat wheat at all, though, so I put together this pizza casserole recipe for him. It's become one of our favorites:
Pizza Redux
INGREDIENTS:
2 large diced tomatoes
1 lb Italian ground sausage
1/2 head caulifower
1/2 bell pepper, diced
16 oz shredded Italian blend cheese
2.5 oz pepperoni
Basil, Garlic, Oregano to taste
DIRECTIONS:
- Pour the diced tomatoes into a colander and RINSE WELL with cold water. Leave in the colander to drain.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Put sausage and garlic in skillet. Brown sausage until it's lightly browned and you've crumbled it into small pieces.
- While the sausage cooks, cut the stems off the caulifower and steam the florets.
- Move the tomatoes to a bowl. RINSE the steamed cauliflower in the colander. Let drain a few minutes. (Your reheated leftovers will be stinky if you don't rinse/drain the steamed cauliflower.)
- Remove the cooked sausage from the skillet into an 8 1/2 x 11 pan, covering the bottom of the pan. LEAVE THE GREASE and a little of the sausage in the skillet.
- Sautee the cauliflower in the remaining sausage and grease for about 4 minutes, mashing them together to crumble the cauliflower (I use a potato masher for this step).
- Once cooked, sprinkle the cooked cauliflower mixture over the sausage crumbles.
- Sprinkle the tomatoes, basil and oregano over the caulifower.
- Sprinkle the diced bell pepper over that.
- Cover the dish evenly with the shredded cheese.
- Add the pepperoni pieces on top.
- Bake about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is starting to brown a bit around the edges.
Serve after at least 5 minutes of cooling. Leftovers reheat extremely well.