Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta

March 28, 2021 by Great Grub, Delicious Treats

Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta is one of those “yes, please” recipes that you have to add to your roster of repeatable dinner options. This quick and easy, creamy sausage pasta dish is a favorite, simple, dinner recipe that the whole family will enjoy.

This creamy Italian sausage pasta is sumptuous and yet outrageously inexpensive and easy to make. With a sauce that is thick and full of deep flavor and zippy spice, and pasta shells that are capable of holding that thick saucy goodness, it’s hard to imagine a more hearty, more perfect dinner. It’s cheesy and spicy and the Italian sausage heaps on even more yumminess. Making the sauce is a lot of fun and I’ve added some tips for anybody who usually just tops their pasta off with a jar or a can of alfredo.

How to Crumble Sausage

Crumbling sausage is an open task that you can do with whatever method you prefer. If you haven’t ever crumbled sausage or made a recipe that calls for the sausage to be crumbled first. It’s fairly simple and easy. The first thing you need to do is remove the casing as instructed in the recipe below. The next step can come from a variety of methods.

Some people like to cook the sausage and break it up as it cooks, just as you would with ground beef if you were making a skillet meal. There are other methods that some people prefer. They range from freezing the meat to cooking it prior to crumbling. In the end, you can pick the method that works best for you.

Since you are cooking the crumbled sausage separately and before anything else in the meal, all methods of crumbling sausage are sufficient. Each option will still yield the grease to reuse for flavor that the recipe calls for.

If you want to freeze the sausage, first, mash it into patties. Then break up the frozen patties using a sharp knife. You can also mash the patties in the skillet as they brown without freezing them.

You can also crumble the sausage meat with your hands. I recommend using gloves for this method so you can keep your hands clean to do other tasks while cooking.

How to Mince Garlic

Mincing garlic is another important skill. When you learn how to mince garlic, you’ll be able to do it in a lot of dishes, particularly in Italian cuisine.

Garlic also has a casing. It’s a paper-like layer that surrounds the bulb and the individual cloves. To break up the bulb of garlic, you need only to place it top down on the counter, or tabletop and press firmly on the root end with your palm. Lean down on it to crush the garlic and break it into cloves.

Once you clear away the unwanted parts take your clove and lay your knife down flat on top of it. For safety, be sure that the knife edge is pointed away from you and angled slightly toward the counter. Give the broad side of the blade a nice slap with your palm to loosen up the skin of the clove.

Now, with a usable clove of garlic, you want to take your knife and lightly slice thin strips of garlic. Be sure not to cut all the way through to the far end of the clove as you want to keep the garlic intact while you mince. Once you have made several thin notches along the garlic, turn the knife flat again and slice through the center horizontally. Turn the garlic and once again chop it into fine pieces, this time cutting all the way through.

When mincing and dicing produce such as garlic, onions, tomatoes, etc. It’s helpful to use a smaller cutting board so you can turn the food in question easily without breaking it up with your hands.

The Flavor of Sausage Grease

You know you have to drain the grease from the sausage, but did you know you could also save it? Reusing bacon grease is a popular hack in cooking, but it’s just as useful when that grease comes from ground sausage. Even better if you ask me. You don’t need a lot. A little goes a long way. Make sure to save just a couple of tablespoons to set aside for later.

When you use the sausage grease to flavor the peppers and onions, they will sauté up nicely with that delicious taste that pulls everything together and enhances it so well. It’s always a good idea to consider the benefits of using anything that can impart extra flavor, even if you would normally throw it out as waste.

The Pan Method

You can make pasta in all kinds of different ways. Some cook up their pasta in the pan with the sauce. There are recipes that call for that, but the pan method I’m referring to here is how you add the sauce to the pasta or the pasta to the sauce.

How do you put sauce on your pasta? You might never have thought about it. It’s possible you’ve just always done it one way. Do you pour the sauce over the top of your plated pasta? Maybe you pour the sauce into the pot of pasta and mix it? With the pan method, you do the opposite and it’s my favorite way to prepare a dish like this one. Once the pasta is finished cooking, you add it to the pan where you make the sauce and mix it in there. Just make sure you drain the pasta first.

Ingredients Needed To Make Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta

• Hot Italian sausage
• Green Bell Pepper
• Onion and garlic
• Jalapeño
• Cream cheese
• Sour cream
• Rotel®
• Slap Ya Mama® seasoning
• Red pepper flakes
• Heavy cream
• Chicken broth
• Monterey Jack cheese
• Medium pasta shells
• Salt & pepper, to taste

(Actual measurements are listed in the recipe card below.)

How To Make Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta

• Remove casing from sausage. Crumble and cook over medium high heat until thoroughly cooked. Drain but reserve 2 tablespoons of grease, and set aside.
• Add reserve grease back to the pan and sauté bell pepper, onions and jalapeno until tender, then add minced garlic and continue cooking for 1-2 additional minutes.
• Place cooked sausage back into pan with vegetables along with remaining ingredients, except pasta.
• Continue cooking until it starts to boil and the cream cheese has melted.
• Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse and add to sausage mixture.
• Sprinkle cheese into pan, stir until melted then remove from heat and enjoy.

Try This Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe Today

Here are a few more delicious pasta recipes that can be found on the blog:

Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest:

Enjoy, Terri

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