Something Savory #4

As you can probably gather from my name and previous posts, I have a bit of a sweet tooth! Baking is a passion of mine and I spend a lot of time enjoying the hobby. Cooking doesn't come quite as naturally to me, my husband is definitely more into that than I am. But, I'm trying to get better and experiment more in the kitchen. My "Something Savory" series is a way to get out of the sweets and try some savory dishes in the kitchen. I do cook, I just tend to make the same things over and over again. Something Savory is making me try new recipes and expand my repertoire of dishes!

This will be my fourth post in the series. So far, I've shared my easy and delicious chicken pockets, a Chinese coleslaw perfect for a potluck, and a Food Network inspired dinner of burgers and potato flanks. Today is a simple (and scrumptious) pasta dish.

I don't know about you, but pasta dishes are a staple in my house. I love pasta and could probably eat it all the time. My extent of creativity when cooking a pasta dish, though, is changing out the type of pasta... I usually make penne or spaghetti noodles and serve it with a marinara sauce. Sometimes I'll brown hamburger for my husband to add to his (I'm not much on beef in my spaghetti). I will also sometimes have chicken with the marinara sauce, I really like that combination. But, today I am making a twist on typical spaghetti - baked pizza spaghetti!

This dish takes a bit longer than making traditional spaghetti, but it is simple to cook. The best part is you can get as creative as you want with it. Just like there are tons of combinations of pizza flavors, there are tons of combinations of baked pizza spaghetti. I even did mine as two different flavors. I did just over 1/2 of it with pepperoni, and the other half without. Basically you are going to cook your noodles and any meat you want added in (unless it is precooked like pepperoni). You combine the noodles, pasta sauce, meat, cheese, and any vegetables into a 9x13 pan and bake it! It's so simple, but scrumptious!

Here's the recipe for my baked pizza spaghetti:

Baked Pizza Spaghetti ingredients:

• 16 oz thin spaghetti
• 24-26 oz marinara sauce
• 8 oz Four Cheese Pizzeria cheese (or any sort of Italian blend of cheese)
• Seasoning of choice (red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, etc)
• Meat of choice (pepperoni, sausage, etc)
• Any vegetables needed (onion, pepper, etc)

Baked Pizza Spaghetti directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Prepare spaghetti noodles per directions on box, break in half

•  Rinse noodles with cold water and drain

• Grease 9x13 in pan
• Pour noodles into greased pan

• Pour marinara sauce over the noodles and smooth out the sauce

• Top marinara sauce with pepperoni, or whatever meat and veggies you would like added

• Top with cheese

• Add any final toppings, including seasonings and pepperoni (or additional meat)

• Cover with foil
• Bake 30 mins
• Remove foil and bake an additional 10 mins

Hope you've enjoyed this recipe! There's still time for you to link up to my Sweet Tooth Tuesdays blog link party. Check out the party here to link up! It's not just for recipes, but crafts and DIY projects as well.