Pizza Casserole

[Guerri Stevens]

My husband and I are preparing to move, and this morning I said it would be OK for him to pack up the cookbooks. In fact, he *did* pack them, and late this afternoon I realized that I need the instructions for cooking the Pizza Casserole I am serving tomorrow (Wednesday). I am posting this message here because although it is not the cooks forum, there is usually someone here who will know the answer to practically anything.

The casserole is prepared and is frozen. So I need to know the temperature and time needed to get it ready to serve. The recipe comes from a Betty Crocker cookbook which I *think* is called "Busy Woman's Cookbook" or perhaps "Working Woman's Cookbook" or something similar. The casserole is ground beef, onions, tomatoes, seasonings, and spiral macaroni, with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses on top.

For ourselves, I would just guess at an oven temperature and wait however long it took. But I made an extra batch as a farewell gift to some neighbors, and would prefer to give them the exact directions.

I can, of course, cut open the carton with the cookbooks, and look it up but I sense that this would annoy my husband and the whole moving process is stressful enough without that.

[Dan in Saint Louis]

Here (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/Recipe.aspx?recipeId=37156) is the recipe, but I see nothing about freezing.

[Guerri Stevens]

That recipe sounds good too, but it's not the same as the one I've got. Mine has ground beef rather than sausage, no olives, and uses spiral pasta (rotini) instead of wagon wheels. It is designed to provide two meals, but I create 3 out of it. One may be baked and served immediately, the other(s) frozen and cooked later. I know it goes directly from freezer to oven, without having to thaw first.

[ktinkel]

I am not familiar with that recipe, but do often make a pasta casserole that sounds somewhat similar.

There is a sort of rule: Cover the dish with foil and place in a 350 °F oven, and heat until the food is soft and a knife inserted in the center comes out warm to the touch. Remove the cover, assuming you want a brown or crunchy top, and cook about 10 or 15 minutes longer. The time will depend on thickness and density, but it will be quite long — an hour or so, probably.

I often cheat by defrosting the casserole first — I do that in a microwave, using the defrost cycle. Then bake it uncovered for half an hour or so at 350 or 375.

Hope this helps.

[Guerri Stevens]

Thanks for you comments. I started the thing off, without defrosting or unwrapping, and let it go for 45 minutes or so. At that point, it was still pretty hard, so I removed the foil wrapping and turned up the heat. It seemed fine when we finally ate it.

My memory is that when cooked without defrosting, it took about 90 minutes, but i don't remember whether it was to be uncovered first or not, and I don't recall the temperature.