Copycat Pizza Hut Cavatini Supreme. Delicious, easy.
Pepperonis, Italian sausage, 2 types of cheese, sauce simmered with blend of spices, and touch of veggies.
Pizza Hut Cavatini was a favorite of mine growing up. I grew to like it more than the pizza! I remember how exciting it was to go to the buffet (do they still do that?), get your soda, and soak up the ambience. The little shakers of parmesan and red pepper on the table. The smell of pizza in the air making your mouth water.
I was amazed to discover that when I say ‘cavatini’ to the average person, the response I invariably get is ‘huh?’ I had NO IDEA that it was only a few Pizza Huts in the midwest that served this dish.
Why isn’t this a standard dish at every Pizza Hut?
(Edit to update after getting reader comments: apparently this was actually common at Pizza Huts back in the day…apparently I just grew up too late!)
If you like copycat recipes, you might like Homemade Hamburger Helper and Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls.
I love making this dish for our household. Not only does it taste delicious, it makes a very largedish full. For a family of four, it’s two nights dinner. (and yes, it re-heats very well). And it’s easy. Very easy.
Side note: When my husband takes it into work for lunch, people call it “goulash”? What in the world is goulash? It sounds like a Russian prison camp. And why would you insult my beloved Pizza Hut cavatini recipe by calling it that?
Well, if you haven’t had cavatini before, you are in for a treat. If you have had Pizza Hut cavatini before, I actually think mine is a slight improvement on the original. But I’m probably biased.
One last note: buy extra pepperoni. Feel free to eat liberally while prepping the dish. It makes the entire experience better.
Pizza Hut Cavatini
Ingredients
- 1 lb Italian sausage, hot
- 1 cup green pepper thinly sliced, approximately 2″ long
- 1 cup red pepper thinly sliced, approximately 2″ long
- 3/4 cup white onion chopped
- 6 oz. mushrooms chopped
- 4 oz spiral noodles
- 4 oz shell noodles
- 4 oz wheel noodles
- 1 & 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp. oregano
- 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 48 oz. spaghetti sauce Prego is best
- 8 oz. pepperoni slices
- 5 oz. Parmesan cheese shredded
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Mise en place. Brown ground Italian sausage until 90% cooked. Drain. Press out excess grease with a paper towel if desired.
- Add peppers, onions, and mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring often. Add sauce and spices. Bring to a slight boil. Remove from heat. Set aside.
- Cook pastas according to package directions. Rinse in cool water. Drain. Set aside.
- Spray a 9” x 13” casserole dish (glass is best with this recipe) with non-stick spray. Layer 1/3 of the pasta, spoon on 1/3 of sauce. Top with 1/3 of the pepperoni and then 1/3 of the cheese.
- Repeat layers: pasta, sauce, pepperoni, cheese.
- Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until mixture is bubbly and cheese is melted. Check after 30 minutes and cover if browning too quickly.
What do you think?
So, what do you think? Don’t you just love it! Are there any other copycat recipes you would like to see? If so, feel free to comment below with ideas. I love trying new recipes.
Could you do me a quick favor? If you enjoyed this, could you share it with your friends? Share buttons are at the top.
I am from the Midwest and loved Cavatini. We grew up eating chili that some people refer to as goulash. It is simply tomato juice, hamburger and macaroni.
Yeah, I grew up in Iowa. I think I vaguely remember it, but wasn’t sure.
I do up in South Carolina and this was my favorite dish growing up. This is what I got any time we went to Pizza Hut! Goulash, where I’m from, is macaroni, ground beef, and a tomato/tomato sauce mixture with herbs and spices. Paula Deen has a great recipe that I use a lot.
I’ve never been to a Pizza Hut outside of Iowa that served this! Wow. That’s amazing. And goulash is also what you said…I couldn’t believe it when someone at his workplace called it goulash. I was offended…haha.
Hope you enjoy this.
In the mid 1970’s, my mother and I would use going to Pizza Hut for the Cavitini for lunch in our walks. We walked miles one way, lunch then walk home. This was in Wenatchee Washington, as far west as you could get.
I still make this, made it today.
That’s the first I’ve heard of it elsewhere! But I didn’t wander away from Iowa much as a youngster…and when my grandparents did take us on vacation, we ate a lot of BBQ. Not much Pizza Hut (haha).
Glad to hear that you still enjoy it. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I grew up in Seattle and it was a treat to get it when my dad took me out. Particularly when I had a cold. The hot spicy dish would clear my head. I couldn’t remember the name of the dish just what was in it. Glad to find the recipe!
So glad you found it! Thanks for taking the time to comment. And hope you enjoy the recipe.
I lived in Houma, Louisiana for many years and our local Pizza Hut served Cavatini. We loved it…so much better than the pasta dishes they serve today. I wish they wold bring it back.
I’m hearing that “back in the day,” it was served quite widely. Glad that a ton of people got to enjoy it.
I agree with you- I wish they would bring it back. Thanks for commenting.
In the mid 1970’s my wife and I would go to our hometown Pizza Hut in SC every Friday night for cavatini until they took it off the menu. Can’t wait to try this. Thanks for the recipe.
I grew up in Sumter, SC in the 70s & this was my absolute favorite thing to get when we went to Pizza Hut! I loved it! Spent the early 80s in Germany & by the time we came home they had removed it from the menu! Always happy to see a fellow South Carolinian! 🙂
I loved cavatini! So excited to find this recipe. I’m 62 & from Texas gulf coast area. Our pizza huts had it when I was a teenager. Then 1 day poof they discontinued in our area. Then years later I happened upon an older location in Houston and low and behold it was on their menu. But that was 20 years ago! I can’t wait to try your recipe!
So glad you found this recipe! I’m 38, and our Pizza Hut in Iowa had it until maybe mid 1990s. Then they pushed the “pasta” dishes…but took the BEST (the cavatini) off the menu. 🙁
Cavatini was always a favorite of mine, too! I have been craving this dish since the last time I had it at a Pizza Hut buffet in Grand Rapids, Michigan which was probably in the 1980s. Thank you So Much for creating this wonderful recipe & sharing it with us!! Bravo!!!
I’m so glad people share where they had this! I honestly thought this was just some small thing in an Iowa franchise. But it turns out people had it all over the United States. Which is good…it was delicious.
In high school (1988-1989) I worked at our local pizza hut which happened to be almost connected to our high school parking lot. I loved making the Cavatini, especially when it was my own “ONE free meal while on the clock”. It was made with spiral/corkscrew noodles and shell noodles, spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, crumbled pork sausage(not Italian sausage), onions, green bell peppers and mushrooms then topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. We ran it through the pizza oven to cook it and melt the tummy cheese on top. It came out bubbly hot and almost overflowing out of those white kinda football () shaped dishes!!! LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!!! Especially enjoyed it with a toasty piece of garlic bread, small side salad with lots of croutons, then drenched with the in-house made Ranch dressing we did from the salad bar they had and some sweet tea!!❤❤❤
I used to go to Pizza Hut with my boyfriend in High School and into college and we would order the Cavatini Supreme. We broke up, life went on and some years later I was pregnant with my first baby and I craved it! So my husband dutifully went to Pizza Hut (we typically got pizza elsewhere) only to find it had been discontinued! Oh the misery! Later they brought it back for a very short time but evidently it came in frozen and they didn’t know how to heat it up because mine was cold in the center. Big Fail. Over the years I have tried to copy it the best I remember. I didn’t remember all the different types of pasta, only the rotini. I’ll have to try this, as my quest to recreate a memory goes on.
I worked for Pizza Hut back in the 70’s when Cavatini & Cavatini Supreme were very popular. In the particular region I worked, the pasta were wagon wheels. They weren’t
cooked in the traditional sense, the dry pasta was soaked overnight in a mixture of water, oil, and a bag of dry seasonings that you had no way of knowing what the actual ingredients were.
A scoop of the prepared pasta, a scoop of pizza sauce, then the toppings for a supreme pizza, mixed together and topped with slices of mozzarella cheese. Then a piece of bell pepper on top to indicate its a supreme, and into a 550° oven for about 8 minutes or so, until everything is bubbly. I do not know if all restaurants did it that way, but I made hundreds and hundreds of those Cavatini s.
(I made a lot for our customers too!! )
Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland me and my family would eat this all the time when we went to pizza hut