Bubble-Up Pizza Casserole

This was one of those recipes I found while browsing Pintrest. It sounded interesting and because pizza is one of our favorite meals in our house, I thought I would give it a try. This was an instant hit. I knew my husband really liked it because he ate the leftovers, which is something he rarely does. Another hint that I had hit upon something amazing was just the next week, he asked when we were going to have it again.

Yes folks, I had on my hands a "Pin Win". This is a great recipe because it doesn't really take a whole lot to prep and it's a fun way for the little ones to eat one of their favorite food. You can also reduce the fat by using reduced-fat biscuits and turkey pepperoni, or even a fully veggie one. Go ahead, make your favorite pizza...in casserole form!

Bubble Up Pizza
(Printable Version)

Ingredients

• 2 cans of canned biscuits (16 biscuits in total)
• 1 (15 oz) jar spaghetti/pizza sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• Your favorite pizza toppings (pepperoni, sausage, black olives, mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc.)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13" baking dish. 
• Cut up biscuits into fourths. Place in a large bowl. Add in the sauce, 1 cup cheese, and toppings. Stir until mixed well. Place mixture into baking dish. 

• Bake for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Top with remaining cheese and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted and starting to bubble. 

 My Take


As I said before, this is a huge hit around here. We have it  once a month, at least! There's not really much to it. One thing is that you can either use those baby pepperonis that they have, or, what I like to do, is cut the pepperoni in half. I find that doing this helps distribute the pepperoni more evenly and is more managable to eat.

If there are people that like different toppings, then you can just top the additional toppings before you put the cheese on, like you see with the black olives in the picture above. 

Calzones

I found a couple of recipes for homemade calzones in my two Betty Crocker Cookbooks that I have. One of them is from the 80's, while the other one is a brand-new one. I kinda mixed the two together and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients

• 1 can of pre-made pizza dough
• Pizza toppings
• Pepperoni
• Sausage
• Mushrooms
• Black Olives
• Onions
• Etc.
• Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Ricotta cheese
• Pizza seasoning
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Before they went into the oven

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Divide the dough into 2. Make them as round as possible.
• Put the pizza toppings, mozzarella and ricotta cheese on one half of the circles, keeping a 1/4" edge on the outside.
• Sprinkle the pizza seasoning over toppings/cheese
• Fold the empty side over on top of the filled side. Pinch or use a fork to put them together. Make sure the seam is tightly sealed.
• Brush the egg on top of the now sealed calzone. Lightly sprinkle some more pizza seasoning on top of the calzone.
• Put into the oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Don't be surprised if they grow a bit.
• Take out and serve with the sauce of your preference. We had marinara. :)

All done!

My Take

I was very amazed at how easy these were to make. Whenever I go to Old Chicago, I always order their calzones, but now I can make them in the comfort of my own home without high prices!

You can put the sauce inside the calzone, but I didn't want it too messy as well as (I believe) traditional calzones don't have the sauce in them. Also, make sure you're careful not to fill them up too much, otherwise the dough might split and yeah....that wouldn't be too good.

So, there ya (finally) have it. My calzone recipe. Feel free to leave comments about what works for you and any questions you have. I promise I won't take a week to reply! :)