Stuffed Peppers Pasta Casserole
This is an easy pasta casserole combining simple ingredients to let them shine. It’s easy to make in about 45 minutes and makes a great family dinner dish.
I created this dish to not just be comforting but to also be easy to make any day of the week and to have ingredients that most of the family will enjoy (and won’t object to)!
What does “comfort food” mean to you? I didn’t even realize that “comfort food” can mean different things to different people.
To me, it’s the actual food and ingredients that make me feel warm and cozy inside. When the ingredients actually bring you satisfaction and comfort. Something that would make you feel cozy and warm while you’re eating it.
Pasta dishes like stuffed shells and lasagna. Soups like stuffed pepper soup and vegetable beef soup. and of course pasta casseroles, and are definitely dishes that I would put in that comforting category.
Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
- Pasta: while I used bowtie pasta because it had a great surface for holding all the yummy ingredients, you can use any pasta you’d like.
- Ground beef: use 85/15 or 90/10 ground beef but not leaner or it will be too dry. If you wish, you can also substitute ground turkey (just use lean, not extra lean.)
- Vegetables: use any combination of colors for the bell peppers. You can also add some move veggies like chopped broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, shaved carrots, or mushrooms.
Storing and Reheating Instructions
- Storing: Make sure to let the casserole cool down completely to room temperature before storing. Feel free to store this pasta casserole in the very same dish it was baked in! Cover it airtight with plastic wrap, foil, or a fitted lid. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Reheating: You can reheat individual portions in the microwave until just heated through. Or, reheat the entire casserole in the oven at 350°F. Cover the casserole dish with foil when reheating so it doesn’t dry out. Note that you may need to add a splash of beef broth to reinvigorate the pasta if it’s dried out a bit.
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Stuffed Peppers Pasta Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 1 large green bell pepper
- 1 large orange bell pepper
- 1 lb ground beef 85/15 or 90/10
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup beef broth
- 5-6 fresh basil leaves
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- Salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 3/4 to 1 lb dry farfalle pasta
- 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese mix
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to the package directions, drain and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and lightly grease a casserole dish. (2 1/2 – 3 quart baking dish will work.)
- Slice onions and peppers thin.
- Preheat a large cooking pan over medium heat. Add some vegetable oil, onions and peppers. Cook veggies until softened.
- Add ground beef to the pan. Break it up as much as possible, cover, and cook for a few minutes. Stir well breaking up clumps of beef. Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Mix and continue to cook, covered, until beef is done.
- Stir in oregano and chopped basil. Stir in pasta and transfer the mixture into a prepared baking dish.
- Spread shredded cheese all over the top and bake for 15-17 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Storing: Make sure to let the casserole cool down completely to room temperature before storing. Feel free to store this pasta casserole in the very same dish it was baked in! Cover it airtight with plastic wrap, foil, or a fitted lid. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Reheating: You can reheat individual portions in the microwave until just heated through. Or, reheat the entire casserole in the oven at 350°F. Cover the casserole dish with foil when reheating so it doesn’t dry out. Note that you may need to add a splash of beef broth to reinvigorate the pasta if it’s dried out a bit.
Nutrition
More Comforting Recipes To Try
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
I have made this dish prob 20 times. My changes are more seasoning – Italian and minced garlic. I also use double the sauce or even a jar of spaghetti sauce!
Glad you like it, Bailey!
Made it tonight. The guys liked it. I did add garlic and wostershire. My husband doesn’t like tomatoes and wostershire gets rid of the taste. Served with garlic bread. It did fill a 13×9 pan and I didn’t add all the pasta. Will make again. Thank you for sharing
Glad you liked it, Carol!
We usually make a Stuffed Pepper casserole with rice at my work for the Meals on Wheels program and came across this recipe – we tried it a few weeks ago and I think they really liked it! Will defiantly put it into our rotation of recipes.
Hi Serena,
Thank you so much for all that you do! I am so happy that they liked the recipe! 🙂
So good! This has become a family favorite.
Hi Rene,
I am so happy your family likes the recipe! Thanks for stopping by and letting me know. 🙂
This was a big hit, very good. Couple of small changes I made…. I used a good bit more tomato sauce then the recipe called for. I would say I used 1-1 1/2 cups. even using that amount, it wasn’t very saucy (which is good, because my husband doesn’t like much sauce). I also had to substitute a little dried basil for fresh, just eyeballed. Also, added 2 cloves chopped garlic.
Hi Jessica,
I am glad you enjoyed it and were able to make it your own. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Have you tried making this a day in advance and do the last step the next day?
Making this tonight for the second time. We really enjoyed it the first time. Even the leftovers got eaten up which never usually happens with just the two of us. Often they get shoved to the back of the fridge and we forget about them but not this dish. We had to eat it up the next day! BTW I cook my pasta al dante’ for oven recipes so when they are cook in the oven with the rest of the casserole they don’t over cook. In this instance I like to have a little extra juice in it so it works well to use the whole can of tomato sauce. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
This was really great! I made it with Spaghetti Squash instead of pasta and used a Rao’s Arabriata Sauce. I also used half ground beef and half spicy Italian sausage. It was delicious! My husband liked it a lot and getting him to eat veggies is a challenge. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you, Melissa. That sounds amazing!
Made this tonight, yummo!!
Thank you, Angela! I’m glad it worked out!
Is it really a whole box (1 lb) of pasta? I followed your recipe exactly and mine doesn’t look like yours. It’s a lot of pasta! A lot! A scoop is almost all pasta and barely any meat or veggies. Also it says it serves 4 but mine was to the very top of a 9×13. Seems like more than 4 servings!?!? Did I do it right?
Hi Danielle!
I’m sorry it didn’t work out quite like you expected. I did use the 1 lb of farfalle pasta (not mini) and the only thing I can think of it a difference in pasta. From my experience, I noticed that some pasta does expand in size more than other while it cooks. Different shapes and whether it’s whole wheat pasta does make a difference. May be there was a pasta difference in the one you used. The baking dish you see here holds only about 1/2 of what a 9×13 casserole dish would hold and it was pretty full but definitely not that much.
As for vegetables and meat, a pound of beef is quite a bit but the peppers could have been small. I use the big, fat ones, so there was quite a big of veggies.
I hope this helps!
Thank you.
This is a Great recipe, easy and fun to make. I’m a caregiver in a home of 5 elderly ladies and they Loved it. I added a bit more veggies then were called for, other then that I completely followed the recipe. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful comfort food recipe.
Awe, thank you, Dee! Always feel free to add extra veggies to your taste 🙂
Only 1/3 cup tomato sauce for 1 lb. of pasta? Also it doesn’t say when to add it.
Hi Vicky,
Thank you for letting me know that I missed that step. You would add it whole cooking the ground beef. Note that it is tomato sauce, not pasta sauce. They’re sold in cans, usually next to tomato paste. There is quite a bit of juice coming off of beef and veggies cooking, so no need for additional sauce. But, if you feel like having a saucier dish, you can definitely add some more!
I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for responding!