Creamy Sausage & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

The creamiest, heartiest, most flavorful pasta – with only NINE ingredients, and in less than 30 minutes.

5 from 2 votes

Creamy Sausage & Sundried Tomato Pasta

Servings 2 people

Equipment

• Chef’s knife
• Cutting board
• Saucepan or pot (for boiling pasta
• Large nonstick skillet

Ingredients

• 6 ounces rotini or fusilli 
• 1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
• 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups spinach

Instructions

• Cook pasta according to package. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and set aside. 
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage (no oil needed) until browned and cooked through, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. If your sausage is really fatty you may need to use a knife to break if up into small pieces. Drain off excess grease if your sausage is greasy. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic and continue cooking for 2 minutes. 
• Stir in heavy cream, chicken broth, parmesan, and salt. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.  
• Stir cooked pasta into the sauce and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until sauce is sticking to pasta and is really thick and creamy. Stir in spinach for the final 1 minute just to wilt it. If your sauce gets too thick at any point, just stir in a splash of that reserved pasta water.
• Serve with more parmesan if desired.

• 6 ounces rotini or fusilli 
• 1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
• 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups spinach

Notes

Helpful hints: 

Yes, fine, you can use whole milk. But no other type of milk! We need the higher fat content to make the sauce creamy.

Use whatever pasta you want – gluten-free, gluten-full, whatev. I used @eatbanza rotini. Just be sure to cook it al dente (so that it still has a bite to it!) as it will continue cooking in the cream sauce. 

The meat counters at many grocery stores sell bulk sausage, so you can purchase just 1/2 pound. If your store doesn’t, buy 1 pound of sausage links, cut open the casings of half of them, and squeeze the sausage meat out of the casing into the skillet. You can freeze the other half of the sausages if you don’t need them right away.

Author: Caroline Chambers