Italian Casserole

Italian flavors in a quick and easy pie.

60 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Medium

Basically a pizza pot pie, this recipe has a nice crust with a cheesy, meaty filling.

Well, this Italian Casserole is another casserole from my Grandma’s cookbook that no one seems to remember. BUT, it looked interesting to me so I figured I’d give it a try and it was surprisingly good. Definitely a kid-friendly recipe as it creates basically a pizza pot pie. The recipe “as-is” is perfect for an 8″ x 8″ baking dish but that only feeds about 4 people. If you’ve got a larger crowd, I think you could easily the recipe and use a 9″ x 18″, although you might have a bit of dough left over.

A few notes on making this recipe, the tomato sauce you use can really change up the flavor quite a bit. You can also feel free to doctor the sauce to your personal taste. I added a bit of Italian seasoning and some fennel seeds which I think added some good flavor. For the Bisquick mix, I chose to make my own. Readers of this blog know I don’t like having too many one-purpose ingredients on hand and you can easily make a cup of Bisquick by following the instructions on my Broccoli Puff recipe. Of course, for this recipe you’ll need to double it to get the two cups needed. Also, I added garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the dough mixture to give it some extra flavor which I’d recommend as well.

This Italian Casserole recipe also has a lot of room for improvisation. It’s a good cabinet cleaner as you can change up the ingredients quite a bit. You could easily swap out the ground beef for something healthier like veggie crumbles or ground turkey. Or, go for something more flavorful like Italian sausage. The canned mushrooms are great in this but you could also add in green peppers, black olives, chopped up pepperoni. Anything that you’d like on a pizza! And while the American cheese really made the dish very cheese and creamy – which is great – I think it would be equally good with sliced provolone or even fresh slices of Mozzarella.

I hope you give this one a try and if you do – send me a picture or post it on Instagram and tag me in it (@bdhbakes). And if you add anything fun to the mix, let me know!!

Steps:

Preheat Oven to 400º
Chop Veggies
Chop the onion, garlic and mushrooms.
Cook Beef, Onion and Garlic
Preheat a large, non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, onions and garlic and cook until the beef is browned. Drain.
Stir in Sauce and Mushrooms
Add the cooked meat and onion mixture back to the pan. Add the tomato sauce and mushrooms. Add the sugar, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Continue to heat on medium high heat until boiling. Once the sauce starts to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Make the Dough
While the sauce cooks, make the dough. Combine the Bisquick with the milk and egg. (Don't use a whisk like I attempted to - a wooden spoon and your hands is much easier!) Mix until just combined. Don't over mix or kneed or it will become tough.
Make the Crust
Once the dough has been mixed, grease an 8" x 8" baking tin. Spread half of the dough mixture over the bottom of the baking tin.
Start Layering
Once the sauce mixture has cooked for ten minutes, you can start the layering. First, layer four slices of American cheese over the dough. Next, pour the meat and sauce mixture over the cheese. Top that with the remaining cheese slices. Drop the remaining dough by spoonful on top of cheese. Grate Parmesan cheese on top. Sprinkle with paprika.
Bake
Bake for 20 minutes or until dough is golden brown and sauce is bubbly. Allow to cool three to five minutes before serving.