Italian Sausage Pasta is an easy 30-minute meal made with simple ingredients! It's a perfect weeknight dinner to prepare for your family, kids, and friends. Everybody will love this restaurant-quality pasta dish!
30-minute sausage pasta - quick and easy dinner
This Italian-inspired sausage pasta is one of my go-to quick recipes when I am short on time. It's an easy dinner recipe to have in your rotation for busy weeknights. The Italian sausage is seared and then combined with spinach, mushrooms, and tomato sauce! Then, it's tossed with bow-tie pasta (farfalle) and topped with red pepper flakes.
This meal is simple, yet the flavors are fantastic! It tastes like a pasta dish from a fine Italian restaurant and might become one of your family's favorite meals.
If you love 30-minute weeknight meals and looking for more dinner inspiration you might also like these 2 recipes: creamy sausage gnocchi and creamy mushroom pork chops.
Main ingredients
- Sausage. Use crumbled sausage without casings. Any type of pork sausage, spicy sausage, mild, sweet, or Italian sausage will work!
- Pasta. This recipe uses an Italian pasta, called Farfalle, or bow tie pasta. The bow-tie shape of this pasta works very well with the tomato pasta sauce, spinach, and mushrooms. It will add an appealing look to your dinner. Cook bow-tie pasta al dente for best texture.
- Spinach is a leafy green vegetable high in fiber and is a great source of many vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium. I use fresh spinach to add some veggies to this recipe. You can also use frozen spinach - thawed and drained of any liquid. Or, use kale instead.
- Mushrooms. I used crimini mushrooms in this recipe. You can also use white button mushrooms, portobello, or shiitake.
- Tomato sauce for pasta. Use your favorite tomato sauce - it can be a store-bought pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, garlic tomato sauce, etc.
What kind of sausage to use
- Crumbled Italian sausage. I used 15 oz of crumbled mild Italian sausage.
- Italian sausage links. You can also use Italian sausage in casings. I would remove the casings and slice the sausage.
- Sweet, spicy, or mild Italian sausage. You can use spicy, sweet, or mild Italian sausage - in this case, I do recommend adding some spice, such as red pepper flakes.
How to make Italian sausage pasta
Below are general instructions and step-by-step photos. For the full recipe, scroll down to the recipe card.
1) First, bring the pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta once it's cooked.
2) While the pasta is cooked, proceed with the rest of the recipe. In a large, high-sided skillet, cook sliced mushrooms with olive oil until cooked through but not overcooked. Remove mushrooms from the skillet.
3) Next, cook the crumbled Italian sausage with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet for about 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.
4) Then, to the same skillet with cooked sausage, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes.
5) Next, add the tomato marinara pasta sauce and spinach.
6) Once you add all these ingredients to the skillet, bring everything to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, until the spinach wilts, occasionally stirring.
7) Then, add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the sausage mixture, and mix everything well. Remove from heat. Top with cooked mushrooms when ready to serve.
Recipe notes
- Use red wine. Add a splash of dry red wine (about ¼ cup) to the tomato marinara sauce, if you like. It will add richness and flavor to the sauce, and is a very Italian thing to do!
- What is a good substitute for canned tomato sauce? You can use canned diced tomatoes or canned crushed tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.
- Spice it up! Sausage pasta is the kind of recipe that benefits from a bit of heat. Use red pepper flakes to spice up this dish, especially if the sausage is not spicy.
- Use crumbled sausage or remove casings from the sausage and slice the sausage into small pieces. Do this even if you use sausage links. This will make the texture of the whole dish much better!
- Make this recipe gluten-free by using gluten-free short pasta - there are many options on the market right now.
- Toppings. When serving, top this sausage pasta with shredded Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, or cracked black pepper.
- Salt. Use your best judgment and don't add a lot of salt. Usually, most sausages are quite salty, so don't add any salt at all or add very little as the whole dish might already be salty enough from sausage.
What to serve with pasta
- Bread. Italian sausage pasta pairs well with baguette, garlic bread, olive bread, or sourdough bread.
- Salad. Throw some greens together with olive oil or balsamic vinegar-based salad dressing. Top with toasted nuts and Parmesan cheese. Don't miss these delicious salad recipes: 30-Minute Berry Spinach Salad and Arugula Salad with Pears, Apples, and Cashews.
Storage and reheating tips
Because the sausage pasta is made without any cream or cheese, this 30-minute weeknight meal is easy to store and reheat. You can also make this ahead. Here are some tips:
- Fridge. Store sausage pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Freezer. Freese the pasta in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
- Reheat in the microwave oven. Reheat the refrigerated pasta in a microwave oven for about 1 minute. Taste and reheat for 30 seconds more, if needed.
- Reheat on the stovetop. Reheat the Italian sausage pasta in a large, high-sided skillet on the stovetop on low-medium heat.
Other Italian sausage pasta recipes
- 30-Minute One-Pan Italian Sausage Gnocchi
- Creamy Sausage Tortellini with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Mozzarella Cheese Sauce
- Italian Sausage Pasta with Vegetables
Italian Sausage Pasta - 30-Minute Meal
Ingredients
- 12 oz pasta farfalle (bow tie) or penne
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 oz mushrooms crimini, sliced
- 15 oz Italian sausage mild, crumbled
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence
- red pepper flakes to taste
- 13 oz tomato sauce such as tomato pasta sauce or marinara
- 6 oz spinach fresh
- salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta cooks, proceed with the recipe below.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat in a large, high-sided skillet.
- Add sliced mushrooms and cook for 3 or 5 minutes until they are cooked through but not overcooked. Remove mushrooms from the skillet.
- To the same, now empty, skillet, add crumbled sausage and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the sausage is cooked. Drain excess fat.
- To the same skillet with sausage, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, tomato pasta sauce, and fresh spinach. Bring to a boil on medium heat and stir everything well. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes until the spinach wilts to your liking.
- Add cooked and drained pasta to the sauce. Reheat.
- Mix everything well. Remove from heat.
- Season with salt, freshly ground coarse black pepper, and red pepper flakes, if you like. Top with cooked sliced mushrooms.
- Tip: use your best judgment about the salt. If the sausage is salty enough, you might not need to add any extra salt.
Notes
- Tomato sauce. It can be a store-bought tomato pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, or garlic tomato sauce.
- Sausage. I used mild Italian sausage. Italian sausage links can be used, too, with casings removed and sausage links sliced. You can also use sweet or spicy Italian sausage.
- Italian seasoning of Herbs from Provence. The mix that I used contained dried rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, and sage.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This was a very easy and delicious meal! I used fusilli because I had neither bowties or penne and it was, of course, fine. Looking forward to the next recipe from Julia!
Thank you for trusting my recipes, Clifford! 🙂
It was good. I added fresh grated Parmesan at the end. But it took longer than 30 minutes. Slicing mushrooms, chopping garlic, removing stems from spinach, (I do!) cooking the sausage, letting it all heat, etc. I find most of anyone’s “30 minute recipes” never go that fast. I’m not a new cook but I don’t do it for a living so..
Thank you, Barb, for your review! Freshly grated Parmesan is a nice addition! 🙂
I do usually have a "laser focus" when cooking to make everything as quick as possible 🙂 and I have the luxury of having no distractions while I do it, and I realize that's not the case for a lot of people.
Made it this morning. My local H‑E‑B grocery store had Italian sausage on sale this week. I came to google this morning to find a recipe and this one stood out to me because it was fast. I added onions, bell pepper and fresh grated Parmesan cheese. I also used a mixture of sweet Italian sausage and hot Italian sausage. Overall I am pleased with the outcome. I will be making your Greek past salad next time.
I am so glad you found my recipe on Google and that it was a success! 🙂 I love that you used more veggies and a mixture of sweet and hot sausage - hot sausage can be too hot at times. I hope you enjoy the Greek pasta salad as much as this recipe. 🙂
I made this for our supper tonight and the only substitution I made was penne rigate for the bowties (farfalle) because I was out of that pasta shape. It was delicious! I served with a green salad. My husband and daughter were both very complimentary! I scaled it to two sausages and half a box of pasta, and used lacinato kale and spinach and added a handful of halved grape tomatoes, and sprinkled it with fresh grated Parmesan. we have enough leftovers that I put them in a 1-quart container and froze them for a quick supper or lunch another time. Thanks for the recipe!
Maggie, I am so happy your whole family loved this pasta dish! Thank you for taking the time to share such a positive review! 🙂
Quick, easy and delicious! Great for a weeknight dinner.
Thanks for your review, Tara!
Made it tonight - it's a keeper!
So glad the recipe was enjoyed!!