Classic Italian Sausage Pasta

This easy Italian Sausage Pasta makes for a perfect weeknight dinner that is ready in less than half an hour.

Video: How To Make Italian Sausage Pasta Dinner

What Kind Of Sausage?

Both pork and turkey Italian sausage work well in this recipe. You can use either sweet, mild, or spicy Italian sausage for this pasta dish, depending on your preference.

If you’re using sausage links, you’ll need about 5 of them and you’ll need to take off the casings. I find the easiest way to do this is to cut the casing all along a sausage link using clean kitchen scissors, and then it just comes off.

Alternatively, you can use bulk Italian sausage meat. That’s the meat that looks like pale ground beef. It’s basically the meat that they put into casings to make sausages, but just kept loose. This is actually easier to use because you don’t have to remove the casings, but my store doesn’t always have it. They always have the links though!

Type Of Pasta

I like a medium-sized pasta shape for this Italian sausage pasta recipe. My go-to’s are penne and rigatoni. But medium-sized shells would also be great. What I love is when some of that crumbly, creamy sausage mixture gets right into the pasta noodles, like into the tube of the penne or in the cup of the shell.

If you’re going to use strand pasta like spaghetti or linguine, break the strands in half before cooking. This just makes them easier to stir with the chunky, hearty sauce.

Type of Skillet To Use

You’ll want a big skillet with tall sides for this dish. This recipe makes quite a bit of sauce and it will overflow if there’s not enough space. 

I use a large non-stick skillet, but whatever your largest one is will work. If there’s sausage stuck to the bottom of the skillet when you add the onions, you can start scraping up the bottom at that point. Liquid from the onions and veggies will be coming out which will help with that. If there’s still some stuck, add some water or stock and scrape it all up, just so that the sausage doesn’t start to burn down there.

Recipe Substitutions

Instead of heavy cream in this recipe, you can instead use half and half, whole milk, or evaporated milk. Just note that heavy cream has the highest fat content of those, and so it doesn’t typically curdle even when mixed with acidic ingredients like tomatoes and heated up. The dairy products with lower fat content do have a risk of curdling. To prevent that, don’t add it while the skillet is on the heat, and don’t allow the mixture to come up to a simmer once you’ve added the dairy. Keep the heat really low.

The recipe calls for cannellini beans but any kind of beans that you like will work here.

Instead of diced tomatoes, you can use tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes. Any of those options work perfectly. Canned whole tomatoes can also work but you’ll need to squish them up. One thing I do to help is to open the can and then put some clean kitchen shears in there and cut up the tomatoes before adding them to the sauce.

Instead of kale, any other leafy green that you like to eat cooked will be great. Spinach, arugula, or Swiss chard are all great alternatives. You could also add in additional veggies like mushrooms.

You can use different kinds of cheese in this creamy Italian sausage pasta. I kept a fairly Italian flavor profile with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. But if you want to take it in a different direction, any cheeses that melt well will work here.