INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground beef – lower fat
1 onion – small
2 cloves garlic – crushed
28 oz crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
4 oz sliced pepperoni
1 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ green pepper – chopped
2 cups mozzarella cheese – divided
2 cups uncooked pasta
INSTRUCTIONS
Start by chopping a small onion and half a green pepper.
Brown 1 pound of lower fat ground beef over medium high heat. Add one small chopped onion after a couple of minutes Cook for about 8 minutes until no pink left. Add two cloves of crushed garlic the last minute of browning. About 8 minutes total.
Add 1 – 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, 1 cup water, 4 oz of sliced pepperoni minus 12 slices for topping, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ tsp pepper, ½ chopped green pepper, 1 cup mozzarella cheese to a smaller crock pot. I used 3 ½ qt. Mix well. Add 2 cups uncooked pasta. Mix well. Helpful hint: separate the pepperoni as it goes in.
Add the cooked ground beef after draining fat. Mix well.
Top with 1 cup mozzarella and the 12 slices of pepperoni.
Cook on low for approximately 4-5 hours until edges browning nicely and pasta done.
RECIPE NOTES
This fits nicely in a 3-4 qt crock pot. If doubled then a 6-7 qt pot would be fine. I do not suggest cooking this smaller recipe in the larger crock pot.
Use a standard short pasta. Results with other may work, but the behavior of a non-standard pasta is unpredictable.
2 cups of dry pasta is 8 oz. generally. So half a one pound box.
Do not precook the pasta; you will have mush with this recipe if you do.
Do not cook on high. Cook on low for 4-5 hours and watch the results near the end since crock pots vary.
My sauce is much better than can or jar sauce.
You may vary the ingredients some, but you need a base of pasta, ground meat, sauce, and cheese.
The pepperoni will release a lot of spice, so be careful with things like red pepper.
Good in the refrigerator or 3-4 days and frozen for 3-4 months.
Nutrition is calculated on ⅙ of the recipe which is about one cup.