Pasta night is made even better when it's simple and quick, on top of being delicious! This tomato based pasta can be enjoyed with or without sausage, but it does add an extra level of awesome to the dish!
This is such a simple pasta recipe that everyone in the family will love. It's basic to save you time, and you can add on as you wish. The choice is yours to add different meats like sausage links or ground sausage, ground beef, or turkey! You can spice up the dish by topping it with ground red pepper.
Noodles
When cooking your noodles, make sure they're al dente and not overcooked! I often choose to rinse my noodles with cold water after cooking them to stop the cook and remove some of the starch. But, for this recipe I chose to leave me. The added starches allows for the sauce to stick better to your noodles. I'll leave it up to you to rinse, or not to rinse!
Sausage
I don't often buy store-bought sausage but we came across a really healthy, low sodium, organic option with apples and gouda on clearance. They were incredible with this dish! I just grill them in a pan on the stove until they're getting a nice grill mark, slice, and serve on top. The sausage adds a lot to the recipe but it definitely isn't needed if you want to go meat free.
Sauce
I have a great marinara sauce recipe that I often use, but I changed it up a bit for this recipe just to have something different. There isn't much to this recipe but there's still a lot of flavor. You can always make more sauce (1.5 times or double the recipe) if you want a lot of sauce, or use this sauce amount for half the noodles.
Since this is an easy recipe, let's leave it at that! Just give it a try and enjoy!
More Italian and Pasta Recipes
- Cellentani with Turkey Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
- Easy Mushroom and Kale Pasta
- Italian Sausage and Fingerling Potatoes
- Hearty and Healthy Spaghetti
- Elevated Hamburger Helper
- Veggie Pizza
- Marinara Sauce
Easy Italian Pasta with Sausage
Ingredients
- 8 oz. uncooked spaghetti noodles 5 cups cooked
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- ¾ cup diced yellow onion
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 14.5 oz. can no salt crushed tomatoes 1 can
- 2 tablespoon water to rinse out can
- 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ cup finely shredded zucchini use small holes on cheese grater then squeeze out some of liquid
- ½ cup diced baby bella mushrooms
Instructions
- Cook noodles as directed or cook at a boil for about 6-7 minutes. Drain water but don’t rinse noodles to keep the starches that will help hold the sauce. Set aside.
- Using small holes on cheese grater shred zucchini. Gently squeeze out some of the excess liquid but it doesn’t have to be all. Dice mushrooms.
- In a medium-sized saucepan add 2 tablespoon oil and heat to medium-low heat (level 3). Once hot, add onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, prep the sauce and seasonings.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine all remaining ingredients including the zucchini and mushrooms.
- After 5 minutes of sautéing vegetables, add sauce mix, stir to combine and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. Decrease heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Serve with cooked sausage links. I used a smoked apple and gouda sausage and it was a great combination!Top with ground red pepper (cayenne) for added heat.
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