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One Pan Creamy Italian Sausage Pasta

Christina
This creamy Italian sausage pasta is coated in a light, garlic, cheesy cream sauce and filled with Italian sausage, mushrooms and spinach. It's the one pan recipe that will be your new favorite weeknight dinner.
4.20 from 10 votes
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Dinner

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound ground Italian sausage, sweet or spicy
  • ½ large sweet onion, diced
  • 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
  • 1 and ½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 (6 ounce) bag baby spinach
  • ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 pound rigatoni pasta

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot, like a dutch oven, cook the sausage over medium-high heat. As the sausage starts to cook, break it up with a spatula until almost cooked— about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the onions, mushrooms, thyme and garlic.
  • Stir in the chicken broth, while gently rubbing the bottom of the pan with a spatula to lift up the flavor bits. Bring to a boil, just as you would water for pasta. Once boiling, stir in the pasta and cover the pot with a lid. The cook time will vary depending on the type of pasta that is used, for penne it's about 11-13 minutes.
  • Once the pasta is cooked stir in the heavy cream, parmesan cheese and spinach. Then, add the lemon juice. Serve immedately. Garnish with parmesan cheese, if desired.
  • The pasta stays fresh for up to 1 week when stored in the refrigerator.

Notes

  1. Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The sausage mixture can be cooked up to 2 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. The day of, start at step 2. This recipe can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and heat as desired.
  2. Sausage: You can use Italian sweet or spicy regular sausage or turkey sausage.
  3. Chicken Broth: Using the chicken broth provides more flavor. If you don't have it on hand, you can use water. You might need to add a bit more salt at the end.
  4. Cheese: If you need this recipe to be dairy-free you can omit this.
  5. Heavy Cream: Any type of milk works— I’ve used dairy-free milks too, typically oat milk.
  6. Pasta: This recipe works best with a short pasta like penne, rotini or rigatoni. The cook time will vary depending on the pasta that you use.
 
Keyword chicken dinner, creamy sausage pasta, dinner recipe, easy dinner recipe, italian sausage pasta, one pan dinner, one pan meal, one pot pasta, sausage pasta
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