This one pan Tuscan sausage pasta is the ultimate in comfort food. It’s full of rich flavour from Italian sausage, sun dried tomatoes and cream but it’s made all in one pan in 30 minutes.
Ok, so it’s not a dish you want to serve on a regular weeknight rotation – it’s indulgent – but as a comforting treat meal or for entertaining, it’s an absolute winner. While it’s already decadent, it’s lovely served with some garlic bread on the side (or just some crusty bread) but feel free to add a side salad too, to lighten things up.
You’ll love this lighter creamy Tuscan chicken too.
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Ingredients & substitutions
Most of the ingredients in this creamy Tuscan sausage pasta are fairly simple everyday things which makes this a great affordable recipe.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
- Use good Italian sausages (the type that look more like mince / ground pork rather than those that look like some kind of pork puree. No judgement here; I love different varieties but in this dish the former just works better). You can use mild or hot Italian sausage.
- Sun-dried tomatoes add a huge punch of flavour and if you get the type in oil, you can reserve that and use it to cook the sausage. Bonus!
- Dried pasta – I like orecchiette for this dish but others will work. Penne pasta is great, shell pasta or fusilli pasta are also good. Rigatoni can work though I find it harder to get submerged in the liquid.
- Parmesan: please use Parmesan from a block and finely grate it yourself. If has a much better flavour than pre shredded (which can have coatings to stop it sticking together and can taste stale), or the shelf stable variety which doesn’t taste like Parmesan at all.
- Cream: You’re after thickened cream / heavy cream but you can actually lighten this dish up really easily too by using some plain yoghurt in place of the cream. You could even replace it all. The yogurt will add a bit of a tang to the sauce too.
- Italian herbs is just a mixture of herbs. You can swap it for the Italian seasoning if that’s all you can get.
- Spinach: I love baby spinach as it’s just so easy to add to almost anything and packs a nutritional punch too. You can swap this for kale if you like. Tuscan kale would be best and you might need to cook it in the sauce for a few minutes as it’s thicker and heavier than spinach.
Serving suggestion: This creamy sausage pasta is lovely served with lemon wedges at the end or even with a sprinkling of chopped fresh basil.
How to make Tuscan sausage pasta
One pan sausage pasta – it’s seriously simple to make and yes it really does come together all in one pan. And since the pasta is cooked right in with everything, you get that same silky, creamy texture from the starch that you would get by adding pasta water to the dish if you had cooked it separately.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Cook the sausage meat
First, you want to grab yourself some good quality Italian sausages and remove the casings. The easiest way to do that is just to run the tip of a sharp knife down the length of the sausage, then peel the casing away from the meat.
Break the sausages up into chunks. Heat some oil (if you have it, the oil from the sundried tomatoes is great) in a non-stick skillet / frying pan. I find non-stick best so the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan as the water gets absorbed later. Add the sausage meat to the pan and sauté it until brown all over.
Now add the garlic, herbs and chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) and cook for another 2 minutes.
2. Deglaze the pan
Add the water to deglaze the pan a little, then stir in the tomato paste and sun dried tomatoes.
3. Add the pasta and stock
Add the chicken stock (or you can use vegetable stock or even just water) and toss in the pasta. Make sure the pasta is as submerged as possible. And if you have the type of orecchiette that tries to hold together in little stacks, try to break them up a bit first. Cook this, covered for about 10 minutes, then for the rest of the time with the lid off.
While it cooks with the lid off, use two forks to break apart any more of the orecchiette that’s sticking together. Some varieties do it and some don’t.
Continue cooking until the pasta is al dente. You should still have some liquid left in the pan but if at any time you feel it’s getting too low (which could be down to the type of pasta or to the exact heat that you have it cooking over), just add a little more water.
4. Make it creamy
Now add the cream and stir it in and bring it back to a simmer.
Add the parmesan cheese and spinach and stir that in until the cheese is melted and the spinach wilted.
Tools
Since it’s all made in one pan, you don’t need to use a bunch of kitchen equipment to make this creamy sausage pasta. With most pasta dishes you need to start with a large pot to cook the pasta separately from the sauce, but not this one. The pasta is cooked right in the pan with everything else.
A non-stick large skillet / frying pan with deep sides is best here – non-stick being the most important aspect. A cast iron or stainless steel frying pan will work but you may find you need a little more oil at the start to stop any sticking of the sausage and more water when cooking the pasta, to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Storage
Leftover Tuscan sausage pasta will store well in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
While many cream sauces can split when being reheated, this one won’t due to the starch in the sauce from cooking the pasta right in the same pan. This means it reheats really well and you can make it ahead.
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Ingredients
- 450 g Italian sausage mild or hot (notes 2)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian herbs
- ¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) or to taste
- 1 ½ cups water (375ml)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste (notes 1)
- 100 g sun dried tomato strips from a jar, drained & oil reserved (⅔ cup lightly packed, drained / 3 ½oz)
- 3 cups chicken stock / chicken broth (750ml)
- 300 g dry orecchiette pasta (3 ¼ cups / 10 ½ oz)
- ¾ cup heavy or thickened cream (180ml)
- 3 big handfuls baby spinach roughly chopped (120g / 5 ½ cups)
- ½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese packed (35g / 1 ¼oz)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Non-stick frying pan / skillet
Instructions
- Remove the casings from the sausages and break them into chunks.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the sun dried tomato oil in a large non-stick frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Cook the sausage for 5-6 minutes until browned all over.
- Add the garlic, herbs and chilli flakes, stirring often, and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Add the water and scrape any bits of the bottom of the pan, then add the sun dried tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix just enough to dissolve the tomato paste in.
- Add the stock and pasta then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low-medium and cover with a lid. Cook for about 10 minutes then stir and remove the lid. Give it a stir, then continue cooking a further 5-8 minutes or until pasta is al dente, stirring 2-3 times throughout. If the liquid has nearly disappeared, add a bit more.
- Stir in the cream and bring it back to a simmer, then add the parmesan and spinach. Stir well to melt the cheese and wilt the spinach.
- Taste and add salt and pepper to taste – this will depend on your sausages and parmesan has a bit of salt in it too. If you want a looser sauce add another 1/4 cup of water. Serve with wedges of lemon on the side.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- I find a good Italian sausage from the butcher is best here. Commercially prepared sausages and cheap sausages tend to have fillers in them which end up catching and burning on the bottom of the pan. In short, a sausage that looks more like pork mince than a pork paste is best.
- A non-stick pan is best for this recipe. If you don’t have one, you may need more oil in the pan and more water when cooking the pasta as well.
- If you get the kind of orecchiette that clumps together, try to pull it apart before adding or with forks while it’s cooking with the lid off.
- You can reduce the richness and lighten this dish by using part plain yogurt in place of the cream. It adds a slight tang which is nice too.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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