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If you want a comforting and easy pasta dinner this pizza pasta combines two comfort foods in one. Plus, it’s an easy one-pot recipe that is ready to serve in about 30 minutes. It’s cheesy and tastes like pizza only in pasta form.

I love one-pot recipes, don’t you? They save so much time and clean-up and I love how you can just throw everything in a pot and it practically cooks itself. This pizza pasta recipe is my newest one and it has the approval of Mr. K., which doesn’t always happen!

I think he loves it because it combines two of his favorite things: pizza and pasta. The best part is that you only need one pot plus two simple steps and you get a cheesy pasta dish that’s ready in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Corkscrew-shaped pasta
Chicken broth
Canned diced or crushed tomatoes
Heavy cream
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni slices
Shredded parmesan cheese

Recipe Tips

You only need one pot to make this recipe. I used my 3-quart Dutch oven which is the perfect size, but any similarly sized pot will work well, too. You just need a pot that’s big enough to hold all of the ingredients.
First, you combine the uncooked pasta, chicken broth, tomatoes, and heavy cream in the pot. Bring it to a boil, but be sure to stir it several times to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot, otherwise it won’t cook evenly.

Place the lid on the pot slightly askew to allow steam to escape while the pasta cooks. It should only take about 10 minutes for it to absorb the liquid. Stir the pasta occasionally while it cooks.
If, after 10 minutes, there is still a lot of liquid in the pot remove the lid and cook the pasta until the liquid has evaporated.

I like to add the mozzarella and pepperoni at the end of the cooking time. Just stir both into the pasta and then the pizza pasta is ready to serve.
For garnish, I like to top each serving with a few more slices of pepperoni and cheese so it looks like pizza. I also like to sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the top, which is the same thing I do with a slice of pizza.

Recipe Variations

There are a few ways to switch up this recipe – here are some ideas!

I love to use mozzarella cheese because it melts really well and you get those delicious cheese pulls. If you want to sub it for something else or do half and half of each, provolone cheese would work well, too.
You can switch up the meat, too, but anything you add should be precooked. Genoa salami or other hard salami would work. Or, try adding cooked and crumbled Italian sausage, diced cooked pancetta or even diced ham.
If you want to add vegetables like bell peppers just make sure it’s cooked first. You could add chopped kalamata olives, too.
Since this is a one-pot pasta I recommend using the cavatappi because I know it will cook in the amount of time listed. You could try subbing another pasta shape that cooks in the same amount of time and it should work fine.
Feel free to add fresh herbs at the end of the cooking time. Chopped parsley, basil and thyme would be perfect.

I’ve been wanting to make a pizza-style pasta for a while now and this recipe is we’ll make again when we’re craving comfort food. Each bite is cheesy bliss and it really does taste like pizza.

More One-Pot Recipes