One Pot Sausage Pasta
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
With crumbled Italian sausage, sneaked in greens, marinara sauce and Parmesan. TRULY A ONE SKILLET DINNER! So so easy!
Featured Comment
reasons to make one pot sausage pasta
- One pot miracle dinner. We’re talking fast, easy and oh-so-convenient. This lightening fast dinner comes together very quickly in just 30 minutes from start to finish. And everything (and I mean everything) gets cooked in literally one skillet, one pot, one pan (whatever you want to call it), even the uncooked fusilli pasta.
- Flexible recipe. This is an incredibly flexible and forgiving recipe – add in as many greens or vegetables as needed (or even extra kale). No one will notice the difference as it soaks up all the lovely flavors here. Not a fan of sausage? Add crumbled ground beef or turkey. Don’t have fusilli on hand? Sub rotini. You can easily modify the recipe to what you have on hand for the speediest dinner yet.
what exactly is one pot pasta
One pot pasta or one pan pasta is an easy pasta dish where the uncooked pasta cooks alongside everything else – meat, vegetables, herbs and seasonings – in a single pan. As the dish simmers, the starch from the pasta will help transform some of the leftover pasta water into the most lovely saucy consistency, coating the fusilli so perfectly.
tips and tricks for success
- Use your favorite meat. Italian sausage (sweet or spicy), ground beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your dish. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety. Homemade stock is even better.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Freshly grated cheese goes a long way. While pre-grated Parmesan cheese will save a few minutes in the kitchen, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or domestic Parmesan is highly recommended. This gives the favorited rich, nutty flavors, creating a smooth, creamy consistency.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
more favorited one pot recipes
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
One Pot Sausage Pasta: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! The beauty of this recipe is that the fusilli pasta cooks alongside the rest of the ingredients for a true one pot meal.
Yes! Pastas with a similar cook time such as rotini or gemelli can be used in place of fusilli.
Spinach, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options to swap out the kale.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
One Pot Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
- 1 cup diced sweet onion
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 8 ounces fusilli pasta
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 4 cups torn kale
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ¼ cup torn basil leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and onion, and cook until sausage has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in marinara sauce, chicken stock, pasta, bell pepper, kale, garlic, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered and stirring once, until pasta is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in Parmesan.
- Serve immediately, garnished with basil, if desired.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Ridiculously delicious. We made it Saturday night, and then did an instant-replay on Sunday night.
Needed a quick & easy dinner after a long day driving. Used my Instapot on sauté (paying attention to heat settings) & it worked perfectly! Delicious, everyone went back for seconds! Next time I’m going to add a splash of vodka & heavy cream for a pasta alla vodka take.
Loved this recipe. My daughter and I made it for meal prep for our lunches for the week. Added zucchini, carrot and cherry tomatoes, a little extra pasta and a little extra fluid to bulk it out a bit more. Simply perfect!
Could you replace the kale with spinach?
Made this for my picky husband and teenage son, big hit! Only bummer is that we didn’t have leftovers! Cooking the pasta in the sauce/broth makes the dish have a tasty, creamy consistency. This is going on weeknight rotation!
Love Love this recipe! So yummy & soooo easy!
Great meal to drop to a friend in need as well
Quick, easy, budget friendly, and delicious. We were really impressed by this meal, made exactly as written. Thanks for another keeper!
This dish was excellent for our family of 5. I doubled the recipe and had to make some adjustments as I read the recipe wrong when putting together my shopping list. To take advantage of what I had readily available I did the following: (1) 1 lb box of Rigatoni, (1) Lb sweet Italian sausage and (1) lb ground beef, and substituted baby spinach for the kale. My 3 young (under 5) kiddos loved it! I look forward to trying again following the original recipe – but great to know I could make a few substitutes and still have a winner!
I think I will try this with breakfast sausage because we are not a fan of italian sausage.
So good and easy to make! Family loved it! Because the ingredients I had were a bit bigger portions, (12oz bag of noodles and 1.25 lb of Italian sausage), I added an extra cup of marinara and a small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and it came out perfectly.
Yummy and easy! I made it vegetarian with Gimme Lean “sausage” and my favorite meatless “chicken” broth. Also used whole wheat pasta, which worked great. Thanks for yet another keeper. :o)
This dinner is SO GOOD and it was so easy to make! My whole family loved it!
Easy and absolutely damn delicious. Didn’t change a thing from the recipe
Made it exactly as written and it was excellent! Kids loved it. I am normally not a “pasta” person, but I really enjoyed it and had leftovers for lunch. Super easy. (I actually made it all in the instant pot)
Made this last night and the two of us really enjoyed the flavors! My jar of marinara was a 3 cup, but the dish was not too liquid at all. I gave a 12 minute cook time with a 10 minute rest so the meal wasn’t right off the heat. I definitely will make this one again!
I did make a few additions to this recipe…I used a red bell pepper instead of an orange one, a 28oz jar of Rao’s marinara sauce instead of 2 cups and added a splash of red wine. Yummy!
I don’t normally post comments. But this time I have to. This recipe was outstanding. My husband and I loved it and ate the left overs the next day. We both agreed that we could eat this every week. Great recipe, super simple to make and definitely a keeper!
I did make a few additions to this recipe…I used a red bell pepper instead of an orange one, a 28oz jar of Rao’s marinara sauce instead of 2 cups and added a splash of red wine. Yummy!
Family loved it! It’s a keeper!delicious!
Love the idea of one pot dinner. The pasta took longer to cook and I ended up adding more broth, red sauce and even a can of diced tomatoes. There needed to be more liquid to cook pasta. The flavor was good and my family enjoyed it. Instead of kale, I used spinach, as that is what I had in the fridge !
Made this tonight for my family. It was a hit! We used Barilla chickpea pasta for a gluten free meal. It came out great. Will definitely make this again.
Is it possible to substitute spinach for the kale?
Not a fan of kale
Yes, of course!