One Pan Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

Weeknight dinner ready in one pan with delicious penne pasta cooked with spicy sausage, spinach and cherry tomatoes. Everything cooks in one pot including pasta that makes sauce flavorful and hearty.

Posted On: Jul, 13 |  Author:
One Pan Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

One Pan Sausage Penne Pasta, a delicious and quick recipe for weeknight pasta dinner with sausage, spinach and penne pasta cooked in one pot with herbs, tomatoes, and spices. Cooking pasta in same pot makes a delicious and hearty Sausage Pasta Sauce. It tastes amazingly thick and lush without cream or cheese. 

This is short-cut pasta dinner with sauce tastes like cooked low and slow but it is actually needs just 20 minutes of cooking start to end. You can also make it your own. Use a spicy sausage or a herb-laced sausage such as breakfast sausage. I often also substitute spinach with curly kale (my favorite). Check more ways to make this pasta recipe your own in "Substitute" section. (you can even have a vegetarian sausage and pasta!)

One Pan Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

My family loves sausage and pasta for dinner. What I love is something easy to cook and a balanced meal with serving of protein and veggies. Today's recipe brings both to the dinner table: 1) An easy one pan pasta for quick weeknight meal. 2) A delicious weeknight dinner of flavorful Italian Sausage cooked with spinach and cherry tomatoes (and beans if motivated) 

Italian Sausage is very flavorful spiced sausage. Few of my favorite herbs and spices such as fennel seeds, marjoram, parsley, and paprika flavor this sausage. When sausage sautés in the skillet, the aroma of spices open up and fill the kitchen. A perfect sign that something delicious is cooking! 

I'm sure you will love all the flavors.

Let's get cooking!

Sausage Spinach Pasta

What Do You Need To Make One Pan Sausage Pasta

The simplicity of this recipe is that three of the main ingredients are in the recipe name. It can't get simpler than this! Isn't it?!

Here is what you need to make One Pan Sausage Pasta:

  1. Sausage (I often use Spicy Italian or Fennel Chicken Sausage)
  2. Penne Pasta
  3. Spinach
  4. Cherry Tomatoes
  5. Tomato Sauce
  6. Oregano
  7. Garlic
  8. Onion
  9. Chicken Stock
  10. White Wine
  11. Seasonings - salt, oregano, chili flakes
  12. Cannellini Beans - optional

I always make sure to slice and dice ingredients before staring to cook. These 10 minutes of prep saves lot of trips to pantry and refrigerator. Plus it is a good way to know if you have all ingredients you need for the recipe. Once you have the ingredients ready, pasta comes together quickly. 

Sausage Pasta 

The secret to make a perfect One Pan Paste is in the cooking method. As you can notice, all ingredients mentioned above are what we often add in Sausage Pasta Sauce. What makes all the difference is how to cook so that pasta cooks al dente and sauce tasty and delicious.

To cook Sausage Pasta, I start by sautéing onion, garlic, spices and sausage in olive oil, and break it into pieces as it cooks. Once sausage browns, take out in a bowl and set aside. Removing sausage in bowl briefly while cooking remaining ingredients helps remove access oil or water released from the sausage. Specially if using red meat sausage, you might have to drain water or oil from pan before moving to the next step.

Once the sausage has browned, I remove it in a bowl and deglaze the pan with wine. This is an excellent way to add flavor to any Pasta Sauce. Next, add tomato sauce, beans (optional), sweet cherry tomatoes. Cook while scraping brown tasty bits attached to bottom of pan and let alcohol of wine evaporate. 

Next add penne pasta, stock and simmer until pasta is tender. Add sausage back in last 5 minutes. Fold in spinach just at the end before taking pasta off the heat.

That's it. One pan Sausage Pasta is that easy to make. Serve while still hot with parmesan cheese (optional)

One Pan Sausage Penne Pasta

Over time this Sausage and Pasta recipe has become my family's favorite. Further more, the leftovers are great to heat for lunch.

Variations 

Here are the variations (or substitutes) that I often opt to make One Pan Pasta at moment's notice:

  1. Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage: Even though pork sausage or chicken both work great for this recipe. Chicken sausage is 1/3rd of the calories of pork sausage. Feel free to use any sausage you prefer. If using a red meat sausage such as lamb sausage don't add oil while sautéing.
  2. Vegetarian Sausage Pasta: Make a completely vegetarian pasta dish by simply replacing the chicken sausage with plant-based sausage and vegetable stock. Rest of the recipe remains same.
  3. Kale or Spinach: Use kale instead of spinach. If using kale, cook it with pasta in last 5 minutes.
  4. Beans: Beans are optional. Can be omitted or replaced with other legumes such as cooked and rinsed chickpeas.
  5. White Wine: Replace white wine with red wine. It will give a red hue to pasta but tastes equally good. You can also omit wine and use a tbsp lemon juice.
  6. Chicken Stock: Use vegetable stock or simply use water mixed with a bouillon cube.

On Pan Sausage Pasta

Friends, make pasta night fun and flavorful with this one pan pasta with sausage and spinach. It is also a balanced meal with serving of protein and vegetables. I'm certain you will love the flavor. 

Try with these Side Salads:

Apple Kale Salad Massaged Kale Salad Heirloom Tomato Burrata Salad

One Pan Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

5 (11 reviews)
One Pan Pasta with Sausage and Spinach
Total Time: Prep Time: Cook Time: Cuisine: Italian () Difficulty: Easy
Yields: 4 Servings - Serves: 4

Ingredients

Directions

  • 1. Sauté Sausage:  Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook stirring often until onions are brown light brown at edges. Don't let garlic burn. Remove sausage from casing (Discard casing). Add sausage to the skillet with spices and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook breaking and stirring often with wooden spatula until sausage browns (about 5 minutes). Remove in a bowl. Set aside.
  • 2. Cook Pasta and Sauce:  Deglaze pan with wine. Continue cooking scraping bits from bottom until most liquid of wine evaporates (about 2 minutes) Add tomatoes sauce, cherry tomato, beans, remaining salt, stock and 1/2 cup water. Mix well. Add penne pasta and bring to boil on high heat.
  • 3. Mix In Sausage:  Cook pasta for 10 minutes, as pasta sauce thickens and pasta starts to cook, mix in cooked sausage and continue cooking another 5 minutes or until pasta is al-dente. Stir often (every 2 minutes) to prevent sticking of pasta to the bottom of the pan.
  • 4. Fold in Spinach:  Once pasta is tender. Take off the heat. Immediately fold in spinach, one cup at time, fold gently until it wilts.
  • 5. Garnish and Serve:  Taste and adjust salt. Serve hot. Top with grated parmesan before eating (optional).
Savita's Notes:
  1. Since pasta cooks in limited amount of liquid, cook at medium heat. and stir often (I stir it once every 2 minutes) while cooking to avoid pasta sticking to the bottom of the pot.
  2. If using kale instead of spinach, cook it with pasta in last 5 minutes.
  3. Beans are optional. Can be omitted or replaced with other legumes such as cooked and rinsed chickpeas.
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11 Responses

  1. First time success! Thank you for the precise instructions - from being mindful not to let the garlic burn to when to stir the pasta 😀 Thank you for this excellent recipe. My family loved it and I will definitely be making this again. ( I added mushrooms) Following from South Africa ❤️
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  2. I love these one pan recipes - so simple and quick to make for a busy weekday night. Thanks for the share!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  3. I love how easy this recipe is to make and that it comes together all in just one pot. A perfect dinner for those busy weeknights!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  4. This looks absolutely delicious! I eat plant based and I can't wait to uses my favorite plant based sausage for this! Thank you!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  5. A great midweek meal, which is full of great flavours and is always on our dinner list the family love it :)
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  6. I was looking for a recipe like this, thank you for sharing! I can't wait to try it soon!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  7. We LOVE sausage with our pasta and this recipe was such a great way to mix things up a bit--LOVE the spinach and white wine addition! On our rotation for sure!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  8. This is such a comforting, family friendly recipe, can't wait to try it.
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  9. I love anything that can be done in one pot and this was delicious too. So much flavour.
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  10. Love this recipe! Added some roasted red peppers to the mix as well. Perfect weeknight dinner. Easy, and it kicked things up a notch because we typically eat the same pasta dishes here, out of sheer convenience. Haha. Thanks for the recipe!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  11. My kids loved your pasta sausage with spinach. I finally found a recipe to sneak some veggies, thanks!
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★