It’s-a Pizza Pasta!
Picture this: you have had a long day, it’s a practice night or game night for your kiddos, and you need a quick and easy dinner that you can make while overseeing homework. Not hard to picture right?
Enter pizza pasta! It has 4 ingredients, is quick and easy – as long as it takes to boil water and cook pasta, and it’s filled with protein and fiber. What could be better?
Pizza pasta has become a weekly staple at our house. I came up with it – or at least my version of it – earlier this year when my son started his elimination diet. He just wanted something “normal” to eat and asked if he could have a pizza bowl from our local pizza place. I didn’t trust their ingredients to be “free” from all of the things he wasn’t supposed to have. I could have made a pizza bowl at home, but since he won’t eat veggies, it would have been sauce and meat only.
I had already made my own quick and easy spaghetti sauce for him. I thought, what if I made that sauce, added some Italian sausage and uncured pepperoni from our local farm, and put it over some sort of gluten-free, whole grain pasta?
And, pizza pasta was born.
I found Barilla’s chickpea rotini, which has 21g of protein per serving and 15g of fiber. I opted for this over their red lentil rotini just because I wasn’t sure how red pasta would be taken. I do plan on introducing the red lentil rotini though (I mean – once it’s covered in sauce, who can tell? Probably my picky 12 yr old….hmmm). It has 25g of protein and 11g of fiber per serving. Either of them is a great pasta! And, if you are watching your carbs, you can use any of the substitutes for pasta – zucchini noodles, heart of palm pasta, or steamed veggies.
You can check my post for my sauce recipe if you want to make your own. I eventually found Rao’s pizza sauce once he was off his elimination diet. I wish it was organic, but other than that, it’s a clean sauce with no additives or preservatives.
For the meat part of it, I use 1 lb of Italian sausage and a package of uncured pepperoni that I get from our local meat farm. I highly recommend this option if you have it available to you. It will be a much cleaner and fresher option that is minimally processed. If you don’t have access to a meat farm, then I would opt for a brand like Applegate or maybe a store brand that is minimally processed.
This recipe meets all of the criteria for quick and easy and healthy for active kiddos! Grab the recipe below and leave a comment if you make it!
Pizza Pasta
Equipment
- pot
- pan
- cutting board
- kitchen knife
- strainer
Ingredients
- 1 box Barrilla chickpea rotini or any pasta of your liking
- 1-2 jars Rao's pizza sauce
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1 package uncured pepperoni
- parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Boil water according to pasta box directions and cook pasta according to instructions.
- While water is coming to a boil, chop pepperoni into smaller pieces (I cut mine into quarters.)
- Heat pan to medium-high heat. Once heated, brown Italian sausage.
- Once sausage is browned, add pepperoni to sausage and let cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the pizza sauce. Use 1-2 jars depending on how "saucy" you like your sauce.
- Reduce heat and the sauce simmer until the pasta is cooked, stirring every couple of minutes.
- Drain pasta once cooked.
- Serve sauce over pasta.
- Top with cheese if desired.
