Crowd Pleasing Cavatini

by Amy on September 16, 2008

wfmw1 Crowd Pleasing CavatiniIt’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.  I’m talking 16 adult servings!

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.

 Crowd Pleasing Cavatini

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.  Tonight I served it with these breadsticks.  Yum!

 Crowd Pleasing Cavatini

A comfort food crowd pleaser.  Works for me!

*** Psssst… Life as Mom is hosting a Fall Recipe Swap today (Thursday).  Go check it out!

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{ 7 trackbacks }

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Gretchen September 17, 2008 at 7:08 am

Looks very yummy!

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2 JessieLeigh September 17, 2008 at 7:12 am

Mmm… looks delicious! Not much I enjoy more than a hearty pasta dish. And I can guarantee my hubby would appreciate the meats involved. : )

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3 Elizabeth September 17, 2008 at 8:59 am

I LOOOOOOOVE comfort food. Thanks for posting that recipe. My family will love it!!

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4 Betty September 17, 2008 at 6:36 pm

This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! I can’t tell you how excited I am about Fall’s imminent arrival!

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5 amyswandering September 17, 2008 at 8:44 pm

So yummy – thanks!

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6 Tammy W September 17, 2008 at 11:14 pm

Looks yummy!

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7 Denai September 18, 2008 at 12:29 pm

OH, I can’t wait to try that… and those bread sticks look delish!!!!!

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8 FishMama September 18, 2008 at 2:37 pm

Sounds yummy. Thanks for linkin’ up!

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9 totallyscrappy September 18, 2008 at 10:06 pm

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.

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