It’s less than a week away, people! Fall is upon us, and in my kitchen, Fall is spelled C-O-M-F-O-R-T F-O-O-D. Hot soups, bread, and meaty casseroles. Yum!
Here it is. My all-time favorite casserole. This stuff is so flavorful, easy to put together, and feeds a crowd.
Crowd Pleasing Cavatini
- 6 oz. shell pasta
- 8 oz. curly pasta
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 chopped green pepper
- 1 small can mushrooms, chopped
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 16 oz. tomato sauce
- 32 oz. spaghetti sauce
- 4 oz. diced deli ham
- 3 oz. diced pepperoni
- 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 16 oz. mozzarella cheese
- 4 oz. parmesan cheese
Boil the pasta until just underdone, drain and rinse. Saute the onion, green pepper and mushrooms in the butter.
Brown the hamburger in a large stockpot. Drain. Stir in to hamburger the saute mixture, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, ham, pepperoni, salt, pepper and oregano. Add pasta. Stir well. Layer meat mixture and cheeses. Repeat layers. Bake 30 minutes at 350.
A few things…
- Do not use a 9×13 pan unless you enjoy scraping boiled over burned food off of the bottom of your oven. I prefer an 11×15 pan for company, or I split the recipe into three smaller pans for my family.
- If you’re splitting your recipe into smaller pans, check out my freezer post for a handy tip.
- The only way to mess this up is to overcook the pasta (no one likes mushy pasta.) Don’t do that! Undercook it, just a little. It will finish cooking in the oven.
Cavatini tastes great with a green salad, green beans, corn, and fresh bread. Easy French Bread and Cheese-Stuffed Garlic Breadsticks both are delicious!
Looks very yummy!
Mmm… looks delicious! Not much I enjoy more than a hearty pasta dish. And I can guarantee my hubby would appreciate the meats involved. : )
I LOOOOOOOVE comfort food. Thanks for posting that recipe. My family will love it!!
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! I can’t tell you how excited I am about Fall’s imminent arrival!
So yummy – thanks!
Looks yummy!
OH, I can’t wait to try that… and those bread sticks look delish!!!!!
Sounds yummy. Thanks for linkin’ up!
Tasty stuff! I’ve never actually had a recipe for this! I’ve just used all the left over pastas (frozen left over shells, corkscrews, bowties, rotini, etc.). Cooked, ground sausage makes a good additon to this treat, too.
We LOVE Cavatini! Thanks for participating in our link up!
Just made this dish for our youth group (about 25 people) tonight and they loved it!! It was so easy and very yummy! The only thing I did different was use canadian bacon and I saved some of the spaghetti sauce out and put it on top of the casserole about half way through baking so the noodles didn’t dry out on the top. Thanks for this great and easy recipe!