Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta is a one-pot meal FULL of flavor! Italian sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and pasta all coated in a deletable cream sauce! It might become your family’s new favorite dish!!
We’re still over here “quarantine eating” as we like to call it! Classic comfort foods are becoming staples and if it can be thrown together in less than 30 minutes….even better! There is just something about a delicious creamy pasta that is the ultimate in comfort food. This Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta is packed with flavor from spicy sausage, sweet sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and the delicious garlic cream sauce. We loved this so much that we had it twice last week!! The girls devoured it – even the picky, I-don’t-like-spinach-or-any-vegetable girl. It is so easy to throw together and can be customized with whatever extra ingredients you like. Mushrooms, bacon, or peas would be great in it as well.
How to make it:
- Bring a large pot of pasta to a boil and cook the penne according to the instructions on the box. You won’t need as much pasta as you would in a normal pasta dish. This recipe is one of my favorites because its more about the other ingredients than it is the pasta.
- While the pasta is cooking, brown the Italian sausage. Once it is browned, transfer the sausage to a plate.
- Using the SAME PAN, add the onions and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the chicken broth (or white wine if you prefer) and scrape up any bits of sausage left on the bottom of the pan. The bits of sausage add so much flavor to the dish.
- Add the dijon and flour and stir well. Add the sun-dried tomatoes (cherry tomatoes are fine if you don’t like sun-dried), stir them around a bit, and then add the good stuff – the cream! Let it bubble and thicken.
- Add the sausage back in the pan. Add the pasta back to the pan big spoonfuls at a time. I stir it around and stop whenever I feel like its enough pasta. You can certainly add as much as you like!
- Top with a big handful of parmesan cheese and stir it all together!
Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- One box of penne pasta or ziti
- 1 lb spicy or mild Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 1/2 cups of baby spinach
- 2 tbsp of minced garlic
- 1/2 cup of chopped onion
- 1/2 cup of chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp of dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp of all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
- 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water, salt well, and bring to a boil. Cook pasta according to instructions on box.
- Cook the sausage (casings removed), breaking it up into crumbles as it cooks. Once it is cooked through, remove from pan and set aside.
- Using the same pan you used for sausage, add minced garlic and chopped onion and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add chicken broth to the pan and scrap up any bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the dijon mustard and flour and stir well.
- Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and the heavy cream to the pan. Let it cook for a few minutes until it begins to bubble and thicken.
- Add the sausage back to the pan.
- Add the spinach large handfuls at a time, stirring between handfuls.
- Add 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce.
- Using a slotted spoon, add the cooked pasta to the sauce. You don't have to drain the pasta - if a little of the salty pasta water gets into the sauce, it only makes it taste better! Add as much pasta as you prefer.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve in pasta bowls and top each bowl with a sprinkle of extra Parmesan cheese.
