This sausage pasta recipe is elegant but simple & quick which makes it the perfect dinner party recipe for any size crowd. Easy enough for a weeknight meal for the family, but dressed up enough for a dinner party.
Why We LOVE This Pasta Recipe:
- it is ready in 30 mins or less
- it looks a lot fancier than it is
- only takes 1 pot and 1 skillet to make
- has a bunch of veggies in it
- tastes amazing!
If you need a quick and easy dish to make for date night or a dinner party, this is your recipe! This sausage pasta recipe made with spinach, tomatoes and wine is elegant and very simple. Your guests will be seriously impressed!
What Pasta to Use?
You can use whatever pasta you like. We prefer fresh pasta with this recipe. You can make it yourself if your feeling a little ambitious, or you can buy the fresh pasta from the store. Fettuccine is our go to for this, but penne or others would work too. We think fettuccini looks more elegant.
If you want to try making your own pasta for this, check out our homemade pasta recipe. Believe it or not, its pretty easy to make and you can’t beat the taste!
Debbie and I made our own this time and we had a bit of fun! We couldn’t figure out where to hang it so it would dry out a little and we could wrap up what we weren’t going to use right away. We ended up hanging it over the shower curtain rod and it worked perfectly!
I’m sure this is what they do in Italy, right?
Can You Make this Pasta Recipe Gluten Free?
Yes! Very easily. You just need to choose a gluten free pasta to serve with the sauce and that’s it. We have used gluten free pasta noodles with this before and it turns our just as nice.
What Sausage to Use for this Dish?
You have a lot of options when it comes to the sausage in this recipe. As written, the recipe calls for a spicy Italian sausage, however you can opt for mild sausage too.
You could also choose a chorizo sausage if you want a little more heat and flavor.
Another option is uncooked farmer sausage, but you would need to chop this up before adding it to the pan to cook.
Try turkey sausage if you want a dish with a little less fat. I’ve had some very good turkey chorizo that would have been excellent in this.
You can basically choose any sausage you like if it is uncooked and can crumble when you take it out of the casing and cook it.
Other Ingredients and Variations for the Dish
Wine – use whatever white wine you have on hand or if you prefer not to use wine, you can substitute with chicken stock.
Cream – we didn’t use cream in this recipe, but if you prefer a bit more of a creamy sauce, you can add a little heavy cream at the end of cooking. It would be delicious too.
Tomatoes – we used two kinds of tomatoes here, but you don’t have to. We really like how the larger tomatoes get saucy when they cook down but we like the flavor of the cherry tomatoes. You could also opt for sundried tomatoes too which would increase the tomato flavor in the dish.
Basil – you can skip this, but don’t! It looks so pretty and gives the dish a fresh taste.
Making the Sauce
This sauce is incredibly easy and only takes about 15 – 20 mins. This is how you make it:
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Add the oil. Cut open the sausage casings and put the meat into the skillet. Break up the sausage while it cooks. You don’t want big pieces. Cook till it starts to get nice and brown.
- Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic. Sauté for a min or two until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms start to brown also.
- Add the tomatoes and keep cooking until the tomatoes start to break down into a sauce. Add the wine and turn the heat down a little to medium-low.
- Then add the chopped fresh spinach to the sausage mixture and stir. Let the spinach wilt right down.
- Add the sliced cherry tomatoes and half the parmesan cheese. Give it a stir.
And that’s it. Very easy.
Serving this Dish to Guests
You can put the skillet you make this in on the table and let everyone help themselves, or you can make everyone’s plate which will look a little fancier. If you are plating for everyone, grab some tongs to grab the pasta, place it on the plate and give it a little twirl as you lower the pasta onto the plate. Then scoop some sauce on top and then top that with a generous sprinkle of basil and shaved parmesan cheese.
Here’s a Tip to Make this even easier:
Make the sauce ahead of time. Even up to a couple hours. Then just keep a lid on it and put it in the fridge if it will be sitting longer than an hour. Just give it a good stir and heat it up again before you add the cooked pasta.
What to Serve this Pasta Dish With
We would serve this with some toasted garlic sourdough bread, but any bread or soft buns will do. You could also do a salad or roasted vegetables. Here are a couple ideas:
- grilled caesar salad
- regular caesar salad with homemade caesar dressing
- warm spinach salad with bacon dressing
- cheesy stuffed zucchini
Other Pasta Dishes You Might Like
- the ultimate homemade lasagna recipe
- asparagus and lemon pasta fonduta with pan fried scallops
- beef pasta bake with mushrooms and jalapenos
- homemade butternut squash ravioli
- short rib ravioli with creamy truffle mushroom sauce
If you’ve tried this sausage pasta recipe then we would love it if you could rate the recipe by clicking on the stars in the recipe card and let us know how it turned out in the comments below. We love hearing from you!
We love to see your creations! Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500 5 spicy Italian sausages about 3 sausages
- 1 large onion , chopped
- 12 crimini mushrooms , sliced
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 large tomatoes , diced
- 1 cup wine
- Handful cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 bag fresh spinach , chopped
- 1/2 – 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 4 tbsp chopped basil
- 500 grams pasta
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Add the oil. Cut open the sausage casings and put the meat into the skillet. Break up the sausage while it cooks. You don’t want big pieces. Cook til nicely browned.
- Meanwhile, fill a big pot with water and put it on the stove, throw a couple pinches of salt in and bring it to a boil.
- Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic. Saute for a while until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are cooked. It’s the best if the onions can get a little bit browned as well. You may have to turn up the heat a little bit to get them to brown.
- Add the tomatoes and keep cooking until the tomatoes start to break down into a sauce. Add the wine and turn the heat down a little to medium-low.
- At this point you want to add the pasta to the boiling water.
- Then add the chopped fresh spinach to the sausage mixture and stir. Let the spinach wilt right down.
- Add the sliced cherry tomatoes and half the parmesan cheese. Give it a stir.
- When the pasta is ready, drain it well and add it to the sauce mixture. Toss it well and serve it right away.
- Serve with a sprinkle of chopped basil and parmesan cheese.
Linda @ 2 Cookin' Mamas says
You were so adventurous making your own pasta! They must dry it out over their shower rods too – lol. This really sounds like it would make a lovely meal because, as you said, you can’t go wrong with Italian.
lynn @ the actor's diet says
Heavenly! Love the pasta pics too…
Julie and Debbie says
Thank you!
megan says
what kind of wine?
Julie & Debbie says
Any kind of white wine you like!