This super easy macaroni casserole is a baked pasta dish with ground turkey, veggies, marinara sauce and cheese. Kid-friendly and no need to pre-cook the pasta!
Easy Macaroni Casserole
My husband loves his comfort pasta dishes, a few that we always make are Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli, Baked Ziti and Spinach Lasagna Rolls .
How To Make Easy Macaroni Casserole
I come from the school of having to cook your pasta in plenty of water, so when someone kindly shared this recipe with me, I won’t lie, I was skeptical! But I loved the outcome, and since then I’ve made it a few times over tweaking it to my taste and we love it!
And the whole wheat elbows from DeLallo – I’m so impressed with their taste! In fact, I like their pasta so much that I am partnering up with them this year as a brand sponsor. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that my family and I don’t like the taste of whole wheat pasta. But that completely changed when I tried DeLallo, and my kids and husband liked it too!
I used whole milk mozzarella on top because the points didn’t change by using reduced fat, and I love my cheese melted and gooey, but you can use whichever you prefer.
Easy Macaroni Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb 93% lean ground turkey
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 medium red pepper, chopped
- 1/4 cup finely diced celery
- 1/4 cup finely diced carrots
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 cups marinara sauce, I used my own homemade
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 oz uncooked DeLallo whole wheat elbows
Instructions
- In a large deep non-stick skillet, brown the ground turkey over high heat until cooked through, seasoning with a pinch of salt and breaking it up into smaller pieces as it cooks.
- Set aside on a dish.
- Add olive oil to the skillet, reduce heat to medium and add the onion, red pepper, celery and carrots; sauté until the vegetables soft, about 6 to 7 minutes.
- Return the turkey to the skillet along with the remaining ingredients except for the pasta and cheese.
- Bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- While simmering, heat oven to 350°F.
- Spoon just enough of the turkey/vegetable mixture to cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
- Cover with uncooked pasta.
- Spoon remaining sauce mixture evenly over the top and sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake 50-55 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes.
- Divide into 8 servings.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Video
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by DeLallo. I only share products I use in my own kitchen. I created this recipe and received compensation to do so.
