Hawaiian Pizza Pasta
I've been making this recipe since I discovered it and tweaked it to our family's liking for more than 15 years. You can substitute chopped salami, pepperoni, or cooked ground beef for the ham. Or add olives and red peppers—whatever you like on a pizza.
I've been making this recipe since I discovered it and tweaked it to our family's liking for more than 15 years. You can substitute chopped salami, pepperoni, or cooked ground beef for the ham. Or add olives and red peppers—whatever you like on a pizza.
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium green pepper chopped
- 1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
- 3 1/2 cups spiral pasta uncooked
- 6 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese divided
- 20 ounces pineapple chunks drained
- 1 cup fully cooked ham cubed
- Carbohydrate 46.2967990519224 g
- Cholesterol 54.3433333333333 mg
- Fat 6.130492725578 g
- Fiber 1.80954758020904 g
- Protein 11.5235555154103 g
- Saturated Fat 0.81278685105937 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (202g)
- Sodium 414.98551912748 mg
- Sugar 44.4872514717134 g
- Trans Fat 0.655432417150662 g
- Calories 282 calories
Step-by-step
- In a large saucepan, saute the mushrooms, onion and pepper in oil for 5 minutes or until tender.
- Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
- Add the tomato sauce, bay leaves, oregano, basil and sugar. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently.
- Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
- Discard bay leaves from sauce.
- Stir in the pasta, 5 cups of mozzarella cheese, pineapple and ham.
- Transfer to a greased shallow 3-qt. baking dish.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Bake, uncovered, at 350?? for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.
Operating under a strict thirty-minute preparation ceiling forces careful coordination between the stovetop sauce and the boiling pasta water. Combining the components successfully requires understanding how moisture behaves when baked at three hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Fresh mushrooms release substantial liquid as they hit the hot canola oil, which must evaporate completely during the initial five-minute sauté before the garlic and tomato sauce enter the pan. Simmering the sauce uncovered for twenty to thirty minutes allows excess water to escape, preventing a watery final casserole.
Fresh Versus Preserved Components
Using fresh vegetables alongside canned tomato sauce and preserved meats creates a distinct structural balance. Fresh green peppers and onions retain a slight crunch if cut uniformly to half-inch dice, while fresh sliced mushrooms shrink significantly under heat. Canned pineapple chunks introduce high sugar content and surface moisture; draining them thoroughly through a mesh strainer for at least ten minutes stops the fruit from diluting the tomato base. Substituting cubed fully cooked ham with pepperoni introduces higher fat content, meaning excess grease may pool on the surface during the final thirty-minute bake. Part-skim mozzarella melts more evenly than whole milk varieties when distributed across six cups total volume, dividing five cups into the pasta mixture and reserving one cup for the topping.
- Watery sauce results from omitting the uncovered simmer step; always reduce until the mixture visibly thickens before adding pasta.
- Uneven melting occurs if cold mozzarella goes straight from the refrigerator into the hot pasta; let the shredded cheese temper for fifteen minutes.
- Browning too quickly indicates the oven temperature exceeds three hundred fifty degrees; check accuracy with an independent oven thermometer.
