Who doesn’t love a good casserole? Infuse it with venison, and you’ve got a real winner. For those of you that haven’t heard of Johnny Marzetti, it’s a popular casserole in the midwest made up of noodles, meat, veggies and tomato sauce. In this batch, we swap out the beef for venison. Because, why not?
A couple things to keep in mind when making this dish. When we say, “use a large pot,” use a REALLY large pot. All of those ingredients fill it up faster than you realize and there’s nothing worse than having to dirty two or three extra pots in the process.
Two other great things about Johnny Marzetti? It’s a great dish to pass at a potluck, or to make for a large gathering of people if you need to feed everyone. Jumping off of that, it’s also a great meal to reheat and live off the leftovers for a week! Who doesn’t love already-made venison lunches?
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground venison
- 1 16-oz package of your favorite noodles (I used whole wheat spaghetti for this batch)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 5-oz package of sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 medium white onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 small green pepper, chopped
- 2 tsp of minced garlic
- 1 10-oz can of tomato soup
- 1 10-oz can of cream of mushroom soup
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, while also cooking noodles in a large pot of boiling water.
- Heat butter and oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms after butter is melted, stirring them occasionally, and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and set them aside.
- Add the ground venison to the saucepan. Once it’s almost browned, add the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic. Mix it all up, and after about 5 minutes, add the mushrooms back in. Continue to cook until the veggies are soft.
- Mix the ground venison mixture, both cans of soup, dill, and shredded cheddar cheese in with the drained noodles in the large pot.
- Put the entire mixture into a large baking dish and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top. Bake it all for about 30 minutes.
- Serve heaping spoonfuls to your friends or family and enjoy!
