Summer Skillet Pasta
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Cheesy baked pasta with the best summer vegetables and andouille sausage! Even your picky eaters will gobble this up!
Featured Comment
IT IS SUMMERTIME! The sun is shining, the state fair is open, ice cream and watermelon are being consumed left and right, and now we have this. This, a thing of beauty.
An entire summer skillet pasta bake to ourselves. And we get to use up all of our summer vegetables and produce for this – zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, basil – you name it.
It’s an easy baked dinner that even your picky eaters will love (and the most perfect way to sneak in alllll those veggies). Serve with white wine, a light salad, and some crusty bread.
Summer nights just never looked so so good.
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Summer Skillet Pasta: Frequently Asked Questions
This is a great way to use up any leftover vegetables such as mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, and anything else you have lingering in your fridge.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
You can omit the andouille sausage, increasing the amount of the other vegetables.
Some white wine, garlic parmesan knots, roasted potatoes for something extra starchy, or our favorite Italian chopped salad are all great accompaniments.
Summer Skillet Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces penne, rigatoni, or ziti
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 zucchini, sliced
- 1 large yellow squash, sliced
- 6 ounces andouille sausage, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- ½ sweet onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ¼ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions until al dente; drain well.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Working in batches, add zucchini and squash, and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 3-4 minutes; set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Stir in sausage, bell pepper and onion until golden, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in garlic and Italian seasoning until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in diced tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 7-10 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in pasta, zucchini, squash and basil until well combined; sprinkle with cheese.
- Place into oven and bake until bubbly and golden brown, about 15 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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Can you PLEASE tell me if the andouille sausage is raw or is it fully cooked and what section of the grocery store did you find it? Thank you. We love your recipes.
Please look for andouille sausage that is fully cooked (this will be labeled on the packaging). These can typically be found in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store.
Is there a reason you do not post the nutritional info at the end of the recipe? I love so many of the dishes you post, but my husband has heart issues and I need to monitor.
Hi Kitty! As we are not registered dietitians, we feel that it is not appropriate to provide nutritional information at this time. We recommend using free online resources at your discretion (for example, you can Google “nutritional calculator”). We hope that helps!
Since I made all my pastas in the insta pot I can’t boil water and hope for the best. So I sautéed the sausage n onion, then zucchini in the insta pot. Put in the rest of ingredients except for cheese. I put in 5 cups of broth to make sure it’s enough for pasta ( usually besides sauces I use 3 cups water to a pound of pasta). Laid a lb of small shells on top and pushed them under liquid. Pressured 4 minutes and quick released Came out perfect. Sprinkled with cheese.
Absolutely delicious!
My husband likes meals that are healthy and have lots of vegetables, but are also filling and have meat. This fit the bill perfectly! It is flavorful and filling without being heavy. The only changes I made were cutting the sausage slices in half and broiling it for 2 minutes after baking to brown the cheese. This is definitely a summertime favorite in our household!
Made this this weekend for my husband’s lunches. Overall, it was really good. I double the recipe and used chickpea pasta instead of Semolina pasta. I put a review up here recently, but it doesn’t seem like administration. Wanted it to be posted for some reason. In my case, when I put this in the oven to bake the cheese to a golden brown, it never baked to a golden brown at 350° for at least 15 minutes. Instead, the cheese just clumped up all over the recipe so I added some marinara sauce to give it more sauce, then the recipe provided. What did I do wrong?
Made this last night to bring to my weekly board game night with the boys. I doubled the sausage and the bell pepper. It was so good everyone had seconds, and this crowd is known for -not- eating their vegetables!
3 for 3 of your recipes being a hit, and I bookmarked several more I want to try.
Second time making this delicious dinner. My husband and I loved everything about it. I’m a sucker for zucchini and yellow squash and is a great recipe utilizing both. It’s colorful and wonderful Summer dish, I’ll make again and again!
I love pasta, and a pasta dish that manages to be cheesy, flavorful, and delicious without making you go into a food coma is a rare find. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is that pasta! Even after having seconds (my husband had thirds), I didn’t feel heavy or sleepy. I love that the bulk of this is veggies! I highly recommend this. Now I’m off to creep on your other recipes…
Super easy and delicious! I used fresh tomatoes instead of diced and omitted the sausage—it was great!
I had family over for dinner and made 2 regular sized casserole dishes and one smaller, my family devoured this, even the vegetable haters loved it. I made a healthier version for myself and would love to share your recipe with a fb group with your permission. Thank you
Tweaked a little bit by adding some marinated artichoke and chicken instead of the sausage. Plus a can of fire roasted diced tomato (that’s all i had). Loved it! Kids and husband gobbled it up. Thanks for a yummy recipe.
Sounds SO GOOD. Thanks, Stacy!
Thoughts about using pasta sauce instead of diced tomatoes?
We loved it! This recipe is great for using up garden veggies. I used fresh cherry tomatoes rather than canned. It was so good!
Can this b made without tomatoes or at least a substitution? I’m not a chunk tomato fan. Thx!
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Love all the fresh veggies in this one! I’ve made this twice now, once with the sausage and once without–both amazingly delicious and big hits. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you, Lea!
This dish was amazing! I used Banza pasta instead and added red chili pepper flakes, thanks for the awesome recipes!
Sounds amazing!
Hello, as I live in Dubai Andouille sausage will be nigh on impossible to find!! We can get pork our here though, but its quite limited varieties, would something like Chorizo be a good replacement maybe?
Thanks !!
Yes, that sounds amazing!
Wow! This looks fantastic! Def going to try this! Love, love your blog!
Let us know how you like it!
Looks amazing, will try it soon
Sorry I spelled your name wrong. I was so excited to let you know how wonderful and easy this recipe is that my fingers went faster than my brain!
Awwww, I’m so happy to hear that everyone enjoyed it!