Sausage, pasta and tomatoes are a classic combo, especially when it comes to weeknight meals. But you don’t always want to go for a fun red sauce. This simple creamy parmesan sauce with diced tomatoes makes for a delicious marriage between the Italian sausage and linguini. My recipe for Simple Sausage Pasta is a must for the monthly dinner menu rotation.
When selecting your sausage for this recipe, you want to make sure that it is links and not just ground sausage. You can go with sweet, regular or spicy Italian sausage, as per your family’s preferences. You could also select a pre-cooked version, but then you would need to add about two more tablespoons of butter to the pan, as you wont be getting as much fat cooking out of the sausages as if you would with uncooked sausages.
As you can see I selected linguine pasta for this dish. I like the slightly thicker pasta to hold more sauce, but didn’t want to go all the way to a fettuccini. You can use a regular spaghetti noodle, thin spaghetti or bucatini. The cut of the sausages don’t led too well to work over a short pasta.
If you family is adverse to chunks of tomatoes in your pasta, you could omit it. While it does add a lovely layer of flavor to the dish – not to mention a vegetable – it is still quite good without it. I opt for the petite diced tomatoes for this exact reason. I am not a big fan of huge chunks of cooked tomatoes in sauces, but I love the flavor of tomatoes. So this is a nice balance. Most of the time you can find this cut of tomato in a can next to the crushed, stewed and puree.
Now Let’s Get Cookin’!
Simple Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1½ lb Italian Sausages links not ground
- 2 lb Linguine
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Dried Basil
- 1 tsp Dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Dried Parsley
- 1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 15oz can Petite Diced Tomatoes
Instructions
- Start the water boiling for the pasta. (salt if desired)
- In a large saute pan over medium high heat, cook Italian sausages through, without getting them too dark brown. Remove sausages to cutting board and let rest.
- Add past to boiling water and cook as directed on the package. Drain pasta in a colander and return to pot, away from heat.
- Slice sausages into ½ inch rounds.
- In the same pan, reduce heat to medium, and add butter. As the butter melts, scrap up an bits from the bottom of the pan. Add seasonings and let cook some in the butter. Then add milk and bring just to a bubble (do not scorch), then add in parmesan cheese and continue to stir for 3 minutes, then add tomatoes and cook another 3 minutes. Next stir in heavy cream and return sausages to pan.
- Once the sauce has slightly thickened, pour it over the cooked pasta and used thongs to combine, as well as serve. Sprinkle with additional parsley and parmesan, if desired.
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