Italian Sausage Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
Italian sausage pasta with tomato cream sauce is an easy, cozy weeknight dinner the whole family will love! I like to make a batch of this flavorful comfort food and enjoy the leftovers all week!
I feel a little weird posting this recipe for Italian sausage pasta with tomato cream sauce right after returning from my first trip to Italy because it’s totally not authentic, at least in Rome, Florence, or Venice.
EDIT: According to my Roman friend Laura of Your Guardian Chef, this is totally an authentic dish (see her comment on this post)! Trust her for sure, since I was only there for two weeks and she lived there.
That said, Italian food is very different depending on the region – the food in each of those three cities was very different, so who’s to say you wouldn’t find something like this in a different Italian city? It does seem that they’re not very big on putting Stuff in their pasta for the most part, though. And this pasta is delightfully full of Stuff.
Authenticity aside, though, this recipe is freaking delicious, and I will not stop making it even now that I know better.
I came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com wayyyy back in 2005. My friends and I decided to throw a back-to-school dinner party in the living room of our dorm when we returned to school for our sophomore year of college. We invited a bunch of our dorm and college friends, so we needed something we could make large quantities of to feed everyone.
I thought this Italian sausage pasta with tomato cream sauce sounded pretty awesome and made a double batch, among other things.
It was a huge hit – plus, we had so much food that random freshmen and people we didn’t know started grabbing plates and joining the fun, and since we had plenty, we didn’t stop them.
The RAs were all standing around dumbfounded since we, some random residents, ended up throwing a wildly successful residence hall social event without them having anything to do with it. (spoiler: I was an RA for the two years following that one)
I don’t remember what else we cooked that night, but I remember this one and still make it to this day! I don’t use nearly as much cream as the original recipe calls for but I don’t think it needs it.
This Italian sausage pasta is great for making at the beginning of the week and eating for lunch for days. It’s one of those recipes where you never get tired of the leftovers and are sad when they’re gone.
This recipe usually feeds my husband and me for dinner and gives me about 3-days-worth of lunch portioned leftovers. Yum!
It’s easy to double if you need to feed a crowd — and since there isn’t any chopping or other ingredient prep, it doesn’t take any longer to make!
Enjoy, and I hope this Italian sausage pasta becomes as much of a favorite for you as it is for me!
Italian Sausage Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb sweet italian sausage removed from casings if necessary
- 1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes undrained
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 12 oz bowtie pasta
- 4 oz fresh spinach
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until translucent, about 2-4 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add sausage and break apart into small pieces while browning, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with red pepper flakes.
- Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.
- When sausage is browned, add undrained tomatoes and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer.
- Mix cornstarch with cold water to make a slurry, then add slowly to sauce, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened. Stir in pasta and spinach.
Nutrition
Absolutely delicious!
I just want to face- plant in that bowl! Thank you for sharing!
Haha, you’re welcome! I hope you enjoy the recipe for many years to come!
You’re killing me smalls! This looks awesome!
This recipe was a hit! I used venison sausage and tweaked it slightly with some extra oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Also, I got crushed tomatoes and rotini pasta for cheaper at Aldi, so I rolled with it. It was absolutely delicious! I also love that your recipes have a realistic time frame. This recipe was done, start to finish, in almost exactly 30 minutes, thanks to only chopping one thing, and cleanup was a breeze! Definitely a go-to for busy weeknights!
That sounds awesome! The crushed tomatoes will result in a significantly different sauce than the undrained diced tomatoes, (still delicious, I mean, how can you go wrong with tomatoes and cream?) but you should try it with the diced ones too and see how you like it! Glad this one was a hit!
Yes I was thinking the same thing. Deer sausage would work really well. This would be good for cooking on the weekend to have for lunch at work during the week.
Hey Brad! This is a great one to eat leftover! The flavors meld together so nicely.
That is funny, why do you think it is not Italian? Off course this is an authentic Italian meal. Everything goes with pasta as long as it is not chicken (don’t ask me why). My mom always made pasta with sausage and tomato sauce. It is delicious. I make it too, but unfortunately I never have any left over.
Hi Laura, I appreciate your insight – you know much better than I, since I was only in Italy for two weeks! I think the only pasta we had with Stuff in it while in Italy was carbonara with the little pieces of pork cheek. All the other pasta we ate just had sauce, and if we wanted veggies they were on the side! And in our cooking class in Rome, our teacher was very adamant about making both our sauces very smooth, so the chunky tomatoes seemed antithetical to what he taught us. I’m glad to hear this is more authentic than I thought! And yes, I was a little surprised to see almost NO chicken the whole time we were there! (except chicken liver pate while we were in Florence, which was delicious!)