Creamy Mozzarella Pasta with Smoked Sausage – Italian style pasta dinner that looks good and tastes great! Short penne pasta with thinly sliced smoked sausage are smothered in a delicious creamy sauce made with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, half and half, and Mozzarella cheese.
This creamy sausage pasta is a great recipe to try with the savory smoked sausage.
The recipe easily feeds 4 people, or makes an easy weeknight dinner for two, with leftovers for next day’s lunch.
What makes this smoked sausage pasta especially tasty is that first you cook sliced sausage for about 4 minutes, letting it release juices, and then you incorporate these juices into the creamy sauce, making the pasta dish spicier and more flavorful.
Creamy Mozzarella Pasta with Smoked Sausage - Italian style pasta dinner that looks good and tastes great! Short penne pasta with thinly sliced smoked sausage are smothered in a delicious creamy sauce made with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, half and half, and Mozzarella cheese.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 0.4 lb smoked sausage , sliced (I used Gyulai Smoked Sausage)
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes , without oil, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese , shredded
- 8 oz penne pasta
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- salt to taste (optional)
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add sliced sausage, cook for 4 minutes, about 2 minutes on each side. Sausage will release its own juice. Remove sausage from the skillet.
- To the same skillet, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and minced garlic. Cook for about 1 minute, constantly stirring.
- Add half and half. Bring to boil. Add cheese, reduce heat, and keep stirring until the cheese melts. Bring heat to medium, if needed, to melt the cheese, then reduce to simmer.
- Cook pasta, drain.
- Add cooked and drained pasta and sausage back to the skillet with the sauce. Stir. Add pepper flakes.
- Note: I did not have to add salt, as the smoked sausage is already salty and provides enough saltiness. Add salt to taste, if needed.
WHAT IS HALF AND HALF? Half and half is half milk half cream. To make 1 cup of half and half, combine 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream or heavy whipping cream.
Love this recipe! I used all ingredients as posted, but the sauce was colloidal, as someone else mentioned. I did use shredded mozzarella. Was the temp too hot, or is it because I’m at high altitude?
If the sauce separates it could be because the sauce was boiled on hot for too long. Ideally, you should gently bring the sauce to a low simmering point and keep stirring the cheese in the sauce while the sauce simmers (not boils).
If there are clumps in the sauce, it usually happens because the sauce is not hot enough (below simmering point).
I had the same experience. I think the instruction to boil the half and half should be clarified to prevent making this mistake.
Can u do this as a freezer meal?
You can make this dish and freeze it in an air-tight container. Reheat it in the oven briefly, without letting the sauce boil too much so that the sauce does not separate. You might have to add a small amount of milk or half-and-half to thin out the sauce.
Great recipe! I used hot Italian sausage and diced fresh tomatoes… and added some oregano when sauteing the tomatoes and garlic. My kids are picky eaters and loved it!
So happy to hear that! Love the idea of using diced fresh tomatoes!
I made this, it was tasty! Though my sauce turned out colloidal looking not really creamy. Next time I think I’ll do a rouge with flour and add the half n half..see if that makes a difference! Thanks for the recioe!!
You’re very welcome! I am glad you liked it! What kind of cheese did you use? Shredded Mozzarella?
This recipe is a gem! was looking for something to cook, easy, open a can of ravioli and heat them up, but my daughter – which can eat pasta every day said – “surprise me” so I did.
Next time I’ll make sure to use proper ingredients perhaps except garlic – i love garlic, daughter is too snobby for it 🙂
digress.
so used chopped half onion.had smoked sausage in the pan with a bit of olive oil. Did not have the dried tomatoes, but chopped some cocktail fresh tomatoes. added them in the pan before adding grated old cheddar – one yellow one white, different vintages. did not have cream but used whole milk 3.8%. boiled pasta a bit beforehand, and added even more grated parmigiana towards the end for thickness. it turned out to be a blast. Thanks.
You are very welcome! I am glad you enjoyed the recipe! Your additions and substitutions sound delicious! Love that you used grated Cheddar and extra Parmesan, as well as fresh tomatoes.
Can you use buttermilk instead of half and half?
No, you have to use half-and-half or heavy cream.
what is half and half?
Use 1/2 cup of whole milk + 1/2 cup of heavy cream to replace 1 cup of half-and-half.
Would have been helpful if you put the 1st step as cooking the pasta. I made this super quick after getting home late from work and had already had the sauce all good then saw the pasta was already supposed to have been made. Not a huge deal but if it’s separate and not cooked in the sauce it’s helpful if it’s stated ahead of time.
If your sauce got too thick while you’ve been waiting for the pasta to cook, you can easily thin it out by adding cooked pasta water.
The author posted the picture that shows pasta… should have been a no brainer that pasta had to be cooked, just saying…
Love this recipe! Next time will do only 2 cloves of garlic tho!
Thank you, Sky! So glad you liked it! 🙂 Yes, you can definitely reduce the garlic to 2 cloves! As you can see I like lots of garlic! 🙂
What is half and half?
You can use 1/2 cup of whole milk + 1/2 cup of heavy cream to substitute for 1 cup of half-and-half.
It was pretty bland. The recipe needs more salt on my opinion.
Adding the right amount of salt is very important – just the right amount of salt helps bring out all the flavors. But it also depends on the kind of sausage you use. Some sausages are saltier than others.
A note on half and half – it has 10% to 12% fat content – half (whole) milk (3.25% fat) and half light cream (18% fat). If you use heavy cream (36% fat), you end up making light cream. Which is fine, since light cream is hard to find in the store these days, but the fat and calorie content will be higher than if you use half and half. If you use heavy cream, mix 1 part with 3 parts milk.