Smoked Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta

Need a simple but flavor packed weeknight meal? Then you came to the right post. You can think of this like an adult version of hot dogs with mac and cheese. By replacing the hot dogs with smoked sausage and the cheddar with mozzarella. Then add in a little kick from some red pepper flakes. This recipe for Smoked Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta is going to make your average weeknight a little bit extra special.

I like to use the beef smoked sausage that comes “rope-style” (think Hillshire Farms). You can also use the turkey variety. If you cannot find the rope-style you can use links, but if they are not pre-cooked like the other kind, you will need to cook them before slicing and pan frying them. If you wanted to change up the flavors you could use a sausage with added flavors like roasted garlic or herbed or roasted red pepper.

For this recipe I specifically used rigatoni pasta. Per usual, use whatever short pasta you prefer or have on hand. I like the rigatoni because it has a good size when compared to the sausage. And because the ridges hold on to the cheese sauce, so you get plenty of cheesy goodness in each bite.

The red pepper flakes don’t add a ton of heat (unless you add a ton of flakes), but it does add that nice pop of heat. I omitted them from my daughter’s plate and my son about doubled the amount I put on it – so it’s actually pretty easy to adjust to what you want.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Smoked Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta

A very simple weeknight supper loaded with smoked sausage, rigatoni pasta and a creamy mozzarella sauce.

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword beer cheese sauce, mozzarella, mozzarella cheese, mozzarella cheese sauce, parsley, pasta recipes, red pepper flakes, rigatoni, rigatoni pasta, smoked sausage

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsps Oil
• 2 lbs Smoked Sausage cut in ½ inch slices
• 2 lb Rigatoni Pasta
• 1 tbsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 tbsp Parsley Flakes

For the Mozzarella Cheese Sauce

• 4 tbsp Butter
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• 4 tbsp Flour
• 2 cups Milk
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese shredded
• 1 cup Heavy Cream

Instructions

• Start water boiling for pasta. (salt if desired)
• In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add oil. Once hot, add sliced sausage pieces. Fry them until slightly browned then remove from heat.
• Add pasta to boiling water and cook as directed on the package. Drain in colander and return to pot, away from heat.
• In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, add butter, garlic powder, and onion powder. Once melted add flour and cook for 3 minutes. Whisk in milk and let cook for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add salt and paprika. Then whisk in cheese one handful at a time until fully incorporated. Lastly add heavy cream and stir to combine. Let bubble another two minutes.
• Add cooked sausage and cheese sauce to pot with cooked pasta. Stir to fully coat.
• Serve with sprinkle of red pepper flakes and parsley.