Let select convenience ingredients work for you to make this tasty Italian-style chicken sausage pasta a shining star in your weeknight dinner menu! Pasta, flavorful chicken sausage, and roasted broccolini is served in a slightly-creamy, zhushed-up marinara sauce for a quick and simple pasta recipe fitting for busy nights. Read on for plenty of substitutions you can use to make this dish even easier.
While it would be nice to eat Sunday sauce every day of the week, trying to get dinner on the table without a whole lot of thinking is a more common occurrence in my house.
This Italian chicken sausage pasta has become such a clutch weeknight meal. You'll enjoy Italian-style flavors (including pasta, meat, and a green vegetable) with easy breezy steps in about 35-ish minutes. The broccolini is hands-off and roasts while the pasta is boiling and the sauce is simmering - talk about efficiency! Like easy breezy pasta e piselli, I think it's one of those "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" kind of recipes, you know?
Why You'll Love This Dish
- It uses basic ingredients you may already have on hand, but if not, is open to countless variations so you can make it work.
- It's a speedier dinner that doesn't cut all corners, rather it relies on a few convenience ingredients where it makes sense, all the while tasting pretty homemade!
- It's features pasta, meat, and a vegetable all in one dish.
Recipe Ingredients
- Pasta: Use your favorite shape. I like a medium tube, like penne, rigatoni, cavatappi, or ziti, or something with crevices (farfalle, rotini) for this chicken sausage pasta.
- Chicken Sausage: This recipe is assuming the use of the popular fully-cooked chicken sausages in a variety of flavors. Choose one that will mesh with the Italian influence here. Ones I've seen in my stores that would work well are Italian-style, Provolone and Romano, roasted garlic, caprese, garlic herb, even something like spinach and feta. I'd steer clear of breakfast, chorizo, apple, etc.
- Pasta Sauce: Everyone has their opinions on the best jarred pasta sauce - use your favorite!
- Broccolini: This is easy to chop up and roast while you get going on the stovetop pasta. There are other green veggies you can use in its place - see substitutes section below.
- Half-and-Half: To add a creamy element without quite so much fat. That said, heavy cream can totally be used, too.
- Cheese: Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step 1: Toss the broccolini in olive oil and roast in the oven.
- Step 2: Meanwhile, brown the chicken sausage rounds.
- Step 3: Make space in the pan and cook the garlic for 1 minute. Set a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta.
- Step 4: Add the pasta sauce to the pan and simmer while everything finishes up. Once ready, stir in everything else and stir.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Want more servings? Keep all other ingredients the same but use a full 16-ounce box of pasta and a 28-ounce jar of sauce (the size of a Costco-sized Rao's).
- Make sure you like your sauce. All jarred pasta sauces are not the same. Some are, well, pretty bad! Some brands I grab when they're a good price (nothing sponsored): Rao's, Michael's of Brooklyn (they make a great low-sodium), Victoria, Mezzetta, Little Italy in the Bronx.
- Use a large pan. If possible, a pan with a 12-inch diameter cooking surface helps to fit all of the chicken sausage rounds in a (tight) single layer so you can brown them all in one batch. The sausages can also be cooked whole while you prep other parts of the recipe by following the air fryer sausage steps.
- Spice it up. Add crushed red pepper or an amount of chopped Calabrian chili peppers that you feel comfortable with (they're hot!) to the simmering sauce.
Substitutions and Shortcuts
- Pasta: Replace with shelf-stable gnocchi! I don't boil gnocchi, rather I quickly pan-toast them (method shown in this recipe for creamy Gorgonzola gnocchi). Another good option with a crisped up crust are air fryer gnocchi.
- Sauce: I like to make this recipe with marinara, but you can use whatever type of pasta sauce you like with these flavors - zippy arrabbiata, bolognese with meat, vodka sauce. If choosing a creamy sauce variety, there's no need to add half-and-half.
- Chicken Sausage: Raw chicken sausage links can be used, but will need to be fully cooked (minimum internal temperature 165°F) before being sliced into rounds.
- Broccolini - Fresh broccoli florets can be used instead (adjust cook time as needed), but for serious broccoli convenience I frequently make roasted frozen broccoli - no need to thaw, chop, etc. Air fryer frozen cauliflower details another cooking method, too.
- Cheese time saver - Higher-quality refrigerated shredded Parmesan (often found in the refrigerated deli case) or my long-time favorite: Locatelli Pecorino.
- Basil time saver - "Lightly dried" basil found in the refrigerated produce section. The ratio is to use half of the fresh basil measurement called for in a recipe. While it's not quite as good as fresh (in my opinion), it's certainly a workable substitute when used sparingly in dishes like this chicken sausage pasta.
More Pasta Recipes
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Weeknight Chicken Sausage Pasta
Let select convenience ingredients work for you to make this tasty chicken sausage pasta a shining star in your weeknight dinner menu! Pasta, flavorful chicken sausage, and roasted broccolini is served in a slightly-creamy, zhushed-up marinara sauce for a quick and simple pasta recipe fitting for busy nights.
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Servings: 6
Calories: 487kcal
Ingredients
- 1 head broccolini sliced into 2-inch segments
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil divided
- 12 ounces dry pasta like penne, farfalle, etc.
- 1 12-ounce package fully-cooked chicken sausage links sliced into rounds
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce
- ¾ cup half-and-half or heavy cream
- ½ cup finely shredded Pecorino Romano or Parmesan
- 3 Tablespoons basil chiffonade
- Crushed red pepper to taste, optional
Instructions
- Roast the broccolini: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Toss the sliced broccolini in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Roast for 15-20 minutes, or until tender and browned to your liking before removing the pan from the oven. Continue with the rest of the recipe while it roasts.
- Cook the pasta: Set up a large pot of water to boil on the stovetop. Once boiling, salt it generously and pour in the pasta. Cook according to package direction to your preferred doneness. Reserve roughly ½ cup of the pasta water before draining. Continue on with the recipe while the water comes up to boil.
- Brown the sausage: Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan set over medium heat. Once heated add the sausage rounds in a single layer and cook until browned on both sides, roughly 9-10 minutes, flipping halfway.
- Sauté the garlic: Make a little space in the middle of the pan and pour in the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Put the minced garlic in the oil and sauté for 1 minute before stirring up with the sausage.
- Quick simmer the sauce: Pour the marinara sauce into the pan with the sausage and garlic and give everything a big stir. Adjust the heat so the sauce comes to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer until the other parts of the dish are finished: the broccolini has roasted and the pasta is done.
- Finish: A minute or so before the pasta is done, pour the half-and-half into the sauce and stir to combine. Add the drained pasta to the pan along with the Pecorino and basil stir to coat. Add some or all of the reserved pasta water if you'd like a thinner sauce. Serve with crushed red pepper if you like, as well as additional Pecorino and basil.
Notes
- Larger yield: For easy measuring, a full standard size box of pasta (16 ounces) can be used with a 28-ounce jar of sauce, all other ingredients the same.
- Make it spicy: Add crushed red pepper or chopped Calabrian chili peppers to the simmering sauce.
- Check your chicken sausage: This recipe assumes the use of fully-cooked chicken sausage links. If you have raw chicken sausages, they must be fully cooked (internal temperature 165°F) before slicing into rounds.
- Sausage flavors: Choose a complementary flavor - Italian, Provolone and Romano, roasted garlic, caprese, garlic herb, even something like spinach and feta. I would not recommended breakfast, chorizo, apple, etc. here.
- Substitute with broccoli: Fresh or frozen florets can be used. Roast florets right from frozen (no thawing needed), simply toss with olive oil and roast until cooked.
Nutrition
Calories: 487kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 26.4g | Fat: 22.7g | Saturated Fat: 6.3g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 862mg | Potassium: 4mg | Fiber: 5.8g | Sugar: 7.1g | Calcium: 160mg | Iron: 4mg
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Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
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