Creamy Sausage Pasta Bake, a delicious pasta dinner recipe that is ready in about 30 minutes. A big hit with kids and grown-ups alike, this easy Italian dish is so flavourful and comforting. Yummy sausages, delicious tomato sauce, and bubbling melting cheese, what's not to love!?
When in doubt, cook pasta! And, if you have kids, you are forever wondering what else to cook to make the little munchkins happy. Or wondering how to keep your sanity intact, more like it. Been there, done that!
The answer, at least as far as dinner time is concerned, is a beautiful pasta bake with sausages and veggies cooked in a lovely creamy sauce to lick your fingers clean.
Throw some cheese in, and you are good to go. Yeah, it doesn't really work with my low-carb lifestyle goals, but it surely makes us all happy. But hey, happiness comes from the simple things in life. Or, in our case, a big dish of pasta.
Any kind of pasta shapes, dried or fresh, pasta is absolutely beautiful in this recipe. Sausages can only make it better, so uses any kind you have, pork, chicken or plant-based ones.
Sausages and pasta go so well together, I used this combo before in my One-Pan Butternut Squash Sausage Pasta and it went down very well with my kids.
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Step-by-step photos and instructions
Once the creamy sauce is ready, and the pasta is cooked, it's all a matter of mixing everything together and adding them to an oven-proof dish topped with some grated cheese. So, let's see how to make the sauce first:
- you can either use sausages, which you can cut and squeeze out of their skin, or use sausage meat, which is ready to use
- use a wooden spoon to break the meat over a medium heat, which means stirring for about 3-4 minutes until the meat is slightly cooked
- add the garlic, spinach, chopped red peppers and tomatoes plus water from the pasta, and leave to cook until you get a thick sauce
- add the cream, season to taste and throw in the cooked pasta
- mix everything well, top with cheese and bake for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted
Alternative ways of cooking the pasta casserole
Using ground sausage meat is one way of making this fantastic pasta bake. Another way would be using slices of sausages, either ready-to-eat, like chorizo, or frying/baking any sausages of your choice, and adding them to the sauce.
In this case, we go straight to making the sauce first by sauteeing an onion with garlic, adding chopped tomatoes, spinach and peppers. Then just follow all the steps, and add the sausages at the same time you add the cooked pasta. The baking time does not change at all.
As far as herbs are concerned, basil, either dried or fresh, parsley and oregano are always the best herbs to use in any Italian pasta dish.
Other pasta bake dishes
Looking for more pasta bake dishes? How about my Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake? Or Cheesy Ham and Pea Pasta Bake? Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs are a fabulous bake too, and it goes so well with kids and grown ups as well.
If you’ve liked my CREAMY SAUSAGE PASTA BAKE or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
Creamy Sausage Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 2 cups fusilli pasta
- 1 cup sausage meat (or 6 sausages)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g, 13 oz)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 cup fresh baby spinach
- ¼ cup double cream (heavy cream)
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- â…› teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley or basil
- ½ cup grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese
- 2 cloves of garlic
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
- Heat up the oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the sausage meat and use a wooden spoon to break the meat.
- Cook for about 3-4 minutes, then add the garlic, chopped tomatoes, chopped pepper, spinach, seasoning, herbs and a quarter of a cup of the water in which the pasta is cooking.
- Put the lid on, and leave to cook for 10 minutes or so until the sauce is reduced.
- Add the cream, and add the cooked and drained pasta.
- Transfer everything to an oven-proof dish, top with grated cheese and bake at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Top with fresh chopped parsley or basil.
Notes
- Using ground sausage meat is one way of making this fantastic pasta bake. Another way would be using slices of sausages, either ready-to-eat, like chorizo, or frying/baking any sausages of your choice, and adding them to the sauce.
- In this case, we go straight to making the sauce first by sauteeing an onion with garlic, adding chopped tomatoes, spinach and peppers. Then just follow all the steps, and add the sausages at the same time you add the cooked pasta. The baking time does not change at all.
Nutrition
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Julie says
We love this, however the main recipe method doesn't mention the spinach at all. I put it in along with the chopped pepper, seasoning and herbs.
Daniela Apostol says
Hi! Thank you for letting me know, I edited the recipe to include the spinach. You added it at the correct time.
Elaine says
Why is there no onion in this recipe? Also why the confusing oven temperature? 390 degrees? What the heck is that? Nobody cooks @ 390 degrees!!! Was that a typo by you? Something not quite right about this recipe/instructions
Daniela Apostol says
The answers to your questions are very simple. Cooking is a matter of taste, if you want to add onion, please do, otherwise there is no right or wrong when it comes to homemade cooking. As for the temperature, my instructions state 200 degrees Celsius or 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Outside Europe, many countries (USA included)measure the temperature in Fahrenheit. I give both temperatures since my readers come from all over the world, not just one country. So, l would suggest doing a bit of research before leaving such an unhelpful comment. Or just read the instructions properly.