When it comes to dinners on the week days, you often need to have some really simple but flavorful meals in your collection of recipes. This recipe for Creamy Ranch Pasta & Sausage falls right into that category. With the great flavors of ranch mixed with smoked sausage and pasta, your whole family is going to be happy campers.
I have included my recipe for ranch seasoning below the main recipe. I keep a jar of this in my cabinet basically all the time. I really prefer it to the packets, but only mostly because of the excess salt and fillers. They just aren’t great for you, but also sometimes you just can’t get away from them. You can definitely use the packets or jarred version, just make sure to adjust the amount some, as the salt may be too much.
The type of sausage I have used for this is also called rope sausage. It comes as smoked sausage, kielbasa or even andouille. You can find beef, pork or turkey version as well. I usually find it near the bacon in my grocery’s refrigerated meats section (somewhere between the cheese and lunch meat, typically). You can use any variety you prefer for this recipe – because let’s face it, most everything works when it comes to ranch!
Since there are no veggies in this particular recipes (though you could easily add in some steamed broccoli by adding fresh broccoli cuts to the pasta in the last 5 minutes of boiling), you may want to add some on the side. You could do a vegetable medley or maybe a nice salad on the side that you can carry the ranch flavors over to.
Now Let’s Get Cookin’!
Creamy Ranch Pasta & Sausage
Ingredients
- 2 tbsps Oil
- 2 lbs Smoked Sausage cut in ½ inch slices
- 2 lb Large Elbow Macaroni
For the Mozzarella Cheese Sauce
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 4 tbsp Flour
- 2 cups Milk
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 3 tbsp Ranch Seasoning see recipes below
- 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 paprika and ranch seasoning. Lastly add heavy cream and stir to combine. Let bubble another two minutes.
- Add cooked sausage and ranch sauce to pot with cooked pasta. Stir to fully coated.
Notes
I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS
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