This Easy Sausage Pasta is one of my go to busy night dinner recipes. With just a handful of simple ingredients, this easy sausage pasta can be on the table in no time. This is a great recipe to keep on hand for those nights when you might not have planned ahead. If you wondering what to make for dinner, put this Easy Sausage Pasta on the menu tonight!
I adapted this recipe from my dear friend Mary Younkin’s cookbook, The Weekday Lunches & Breakfast Cookbook. Mary, who runs the website Barefeet In The Kitchen, can always be depended on for great recipes, and this is no exception.
With a few modifications (which in my house means omitting ingredients) my picky eaters absolutely gobble this Easy Sausage Pasta right up. While this may not be the most photogenic meal, I promise you it’s ridiculously delicious!
EASY SAUSAGE PASTA
What ingredients do you need to make sausage pasta? For this recipe, not a whole lot! Here’s what you’ll need to whip this up for dinner.
- Pasta such as penne, mini farfalle or rotini
- Sausage – I use Jimmy Dean Regular Pork Sausage (yes, breakfast sausage)
- Heavy Cream
- Optional – cajun spices, garlic, stewed tomatoes, green bell pepper
My kids, and to some extent myself, tend to prefer our foods fairly simple when it comes to ingredients. We find this sausage pasta recipe absolutely delicious with minimal ingredients.
That said, you can easily add cajun spices to kick up the heat more, garlic for another layer of flavor and stewed tomatoes or green bell peppers. If your family enjoys those flavors, by all means, add them in!
But I guarantee you will still have a delicious, flavor packed meal without them.
How do you make sausage pasta?
This truly is EASY sausage pasta! There are only a few simple steps to make this recipe.
- Cook pasta
- Cook sausage
- Cook sauce
- Combine all ingredients
The sauce for this recipe is not really a thick cream sauce, it more just nicely coats the pasta.
If however you would like yours a bit creamier, feel free to add an additional 1/2 cup+ of heavy cream. Let’s make some Easy Sausage Pasta.
If you love this recipe, then don’t miss my easy Biscuits and Sausage Gravy recipe, Breakfast Sliders and my Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole, which also uses breakfast sausage. I think you’ll also enjoy my Pizza Casserole, which combines pasta, sausage and pepperoni all in one easy dish!
Easy Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz penne pasta
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 pound sausage Jimmy Dean regular pork sausage recommended
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Instructions
- Add 2 tsp salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente pasta.
- In a separate large pan over medium-high heat, cook sausage throughly. If adding garlic or green chopped green peppers, they can be added with sausage at this time.
- Prior to draining pasta, scoop out approximately 1/2 cup of pasta water and set aside.
- Once sausage is completely cooked, use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate.
- Return the hot skillet to the stovetop, still on medium-high heat, and pour 1/2 cup of pasta water into pan to deglaze the hot pan. Use a spatula to really scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the pan so that they combine with the pasta water. Reduce heat to medium and add in heavy cream. If using additional ingredients, they can be added at this time. Reduce heat to medium and let sauce simmer for 3-5 minutes to thicken. Keep a close eye on it and stir often to avoid burning.
- Once sauce has thickened, drained pasta can be added to the sauce. Stir well to combine and evenly coat the pasta. Add in sausage and stir well to combine.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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I hope your family enjoys this EASY SAUSAGE PASTA recipe as much as mine does!
Anonymous says
Can you use milk if you don’t have heavy cream?
Christi Johnstone says
Honestly, I’m going to say no on this one. There are so few items in this recipe, and the cream is the sauce for this recipe. It’s a lot thicker than milk and will reduce more. If you use milk, I think you’re going to have pasta and sausage in milk basically.
Jessica says
This sounds absolutely amazing but I was wondering if there’s a way you could adapt it to make it in the instant pot?
Christi Johnstone says
Unfortunately it’s just not possible for me to test every cooking option, or variation of ingredients, so I can’t speak to the results in an instant pot. That said it honestly only takes like 10 minutes to make this, personally I don’t think it’s worth the trouble of even getting out the Instant Pot (but I’m not a big Instant Pot user). If you do try it, let us know how it works out!
Keena says
AWESOME! Easy and delish!! My husband absolutely loves this!
Andi says
Quick, easy and delicious!
Anne says
SO yummy! we are excited I make it all the time! sometimes, just as written, sometimes I add spinach and mushrooms. Sometimes I add leeks and mushrooms. Really, you can’t go wrong with this recipe. I also think it’s a great recipe for beginner cooks, because it’s so flexible really, you can’t go wrong!
Lisa says
Totally Delicious! I’ve made it twice, and again tomorrow. I add a little Italian seasoning to. We love this dish!!
Patsy says
Just what I was looking for, a dinner recipe for breakfast sausage. It was a hit on all counts. Tastes great, fast and easy and I didn’t have to go to the store. I only made a couple changes. I added finely chopped sweet peppers and spinach to the sausage. When sausage was cooked I added a couple tablespoons butter and flour and stirred then added cream and added some milk also. When thickened I added about a cup of Parmesan then added noodles and stirred it I did use the Cajun seasoning and black pepper and som dehydrated onion. Thank you.
Christi Johnstone says
So glad you liked it! It really is a popular dish at our house, we usually make it at least 1-2 times a month!
JM says
I added a couple cloves of minced garlic, a chicken bullion cube (instead of salt), some Italian seasoning, and some grated parmesan to make the sauce….DURING dinner one of my kids asked me to make this again and, when asking for seconds, the other said how good it was!