There are so many reasons to love a pizza oven. The high heat and even airflow do more than crisp a crust. It cooks a meatloaf in half the time, bubbles a casserole until the top turns deep gold, and roasts vegetables with a char that is impossible to achieve in a regular oven. If your pizza oven is only used for pizza nights, then you are wasting a lot of potential! Here are seven recipes that put that heat to work on something other than the dough.
Photo by Yasser Mohamed on Pexels
If you ask anyone to come up with a comfort food craving, the first two answers you'll get are more likely to be “pizza” or “burger.” Fair enough. But there's so much more on the comfort food table. It's the mac and cheese your grandmother made on Sunday, the shepherd's pie that appeared every winter, the cornbread that was served with the pot of chili.
What these dishes have in common is that they require an ordinary oven to be used, and that takes forty minutes to preheat. A pizza oven changes that math. The richness and crust are the same, but the time is only half as long, so comfort food isn't a weekend project anymore, it's a Tuesday option.
1. Baked Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
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1 lb of elbow macaroni
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4 tbsp of butter
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4 tbsp of flour
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3 cups of whole milk
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2 cups of sharp cheddar (grated)
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1 cup of gruyère (grated)
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1 tsp of mustard powder
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salt and pepper
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1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs.
Instructions:
Cook macaroni until just tender but not quite cooked through; drain. Heat butter in a saucepan. Add flour, cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the milk, whisking it in, and add the cheeses, stirring until melted. Add mustard powder, salt, and pepper. Pour the sauce on top of the pasta, add panko to the top. Slide it into the pizza oven at around 650°F for 4-6 minutes until the top is browned and edges are bubbling.
2. Skillet Meatloaf
Ingredients:
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2 lbs of ground beef
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1 cup of breadcrumbs
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2 eggs
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1/2 cup of milk
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1 small onion (diced)
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2 garlic cloves (minced)
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2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
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1/3 cup of ketchup
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2 tbsp of brown sugar
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1 tbsp of mustard
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salt and pepper.
Instructions:
Mix beef, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, onion, garlic, Worcestershire, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir until just combined. Shape into a loaf in a cast iron pan. Use ketchup, brown sugar and mustard to make glaze. Brush half of the glaze over top. Bake until crisp, for about 15-18 minutes, adding the rest of the glaze halfway through. Check the internal temperature to ensure it reaches 160°F before removing from the oven.
3. Baked Ziti
Ingredients:
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1 lb of ziti
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24 oz of marinara sauce
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15 oz of ricotta
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2 cups of mozzarella (grated)
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½ cup of parmesan (grated)
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1 tsp of dried oregano
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fresh basil.
Instructions:
Cook the ziti until al dente. Add oregano and ricotta to the egg. In a baking dish, layer half the pasta, half the marinara, dollops of ricotta mixture, and a third of the mozzarella. Repeat and then sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Bake at 600°F until the cheese has browned in spots, for about 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil.
4. Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients:
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1.5 lbs of ground lamb (or beef)
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2 onions (diced)
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2 carrots (diced)
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1 cup of peas
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2 tbsp of tomato paste
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1 cup of beef stock
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1 tbsp of flour
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2 lbs of mashed potatoes
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salt and pepper.
Instructions:
Brown the lamb in a cast iron skillet, add the onions and carrots, and cook until soft. Add tomato paste and flour and cook for 1 minute, then add stock and peas. Cook until thickened, about 8 minutes. Evenly cover the mashed potatoes and use a fork to make a pattern. Sprinkle with butter and bake at 550°F until peaks are golden brown (in about 8-10 minutes).
5. Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
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6 bell peppers
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1 lb ground turkey or beef
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1 cup cooked rice
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black beans
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corn
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tomato sauce
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cumin
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chili powder
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1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
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salt and pepper.
Instructions:
Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds. Brown meat; add cumin and chili powder. Then add rice, beans, corn, tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Stuff each pepper and place in pan. Top with cheese. Bake until peppers soften and cheese browns, 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Skillet Cornbread
Ingredients:
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1 cup of cornmeal
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1 cup of flour
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1/4 cup of sugar
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1 tbsp of baking powder
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1/2 tsp of salt
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1 cup of buttermilk
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2 eggs
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1/4 cup of melted butter
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2 tbsp of bacon fat (for the pan).
Instructions:
While mixing the dry ingredients, heat the bacon fat in a cast iron pan. Beat together buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter, and mix lightly into the dry mix. Pour into the hot pan until it 'sizzles' when it touches the pan. Bake at 550°F until a toothpick inserted in the crust comes out clean, and the edges lift off the pan, 6 to 8 minutes.
7. Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
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6 apples (peeled and sliced)
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2 tbsp of lemon juice
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1/3 cup of sugar
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1 tsp of cinnamon
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1 cup of oats
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1/2 cup of flour
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1/2 cup of brown sugar
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1/2 cup of cold cubed butter
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pinch of salt.
Instructions:
Squeeze lemon, add sugar and cinnamon, mix apples and place in a baking dish. Stir together the oats, flour, brown sugar and salt. Mix in cold butter and work until it is coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping on top of the apples. Bake the apple pie at 500°F until the top is brown, and the apples release their juices.
Final Thoughts
Your pizza oven can make more than just Margheritas. If a crust crisps in 90 seconds, a meatloaf will brown, a mac and cheese melt and a mashed potato topping will set in golden peaks in the same amount of time. This week, give one of these seven recipes a shot, and you'll find your oven looking at you new - from being a one-size-fits-all to being the quickest path to your favorite meals.
