A chili pasta casserole recipe thats great for game night -- or any night
I’m a sucker for a casserole, especially one made with pasta, sauce, meat and cheese. I love digging a big spoon into it and filling my dish with the comforting scoops that still have curls of steam rising off them.
Casseroles taste good, yes, but also, if you’re the cook in your house, you know they typically use fewer pots and often can be made with shelf-stable ingredients or refrigerator mainstays. Plus, they can fill you up when your wallet is a bit thin.
While cruising through the “Seriously Good Chili Cookbook” by Brian Baumgartner, the actor who portrayed chili expert Kevin Malone on NBC’s “The Office,” I discovered what has quickly become a new favorite: Chili Pasta Casserole.
Baumgartner, who became famous for a chili-spilling scene on the hit NBC sitcom and has embraced his chili connection, collected more than 170 recipes from cook-off winners, chefs and regular folks. He got this dish from Sara Lundberg of Portland, Ore., who is a cookbook author and founder of Budget Savvy Diva, a lifestyle blog. Lundberg has five children, so she’s definitely zeroed-in on the importance of getting a thrifty dinner on the table fast.
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In her recipe, Lundberg cooked the dish on the stove in a large skillet and then transferred it all to a 9-by-13-inch pan, but we used a large, ovenproof pan and that left us with one less pan to clean. (The pan must hold about 14 cups total.)
If, however, you want to make the dish ahead, use the casserole dish. It can be assembled and refrigerated so it is ready to be baked just before serving. This recipe also freezes really well. I froze it in two-person portions — the size of our household — and had three delicious meals at my fingertips.
The ease of assembly and freezing makes this a great option for potlucks, parties or game-day festivities, especially for weeknight football watching.
Share this articleShareThis is a dish that is easy to vary to your own taste, too. If you’re not a beef eater, substitute with ground turkey or chicken. Or go vegetarian with a plant-based meat or add another can of beans. If you want to slip vegetables in there, toss spinach, kale, peas or corn into the mixture and cook them down a bit before you add the pasta.
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The best part is that the casserole takes 15 to 20 minutes to assemble. Then you pop it in the oven for 20 minutes, which gives you time to clean up any kitchen mess, make a green salad and uncork a bottle of red wine.
When the casserole is bubbling and ready to dig into, Lundberg recommends a generous dollop of sour cream on top. I concur.
correction
In an earlier version of this recipe, the weight of the cheese at 4 ounces was correct, but not the cup measure. It calls for 1 cup.
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