One Pot Sausage Pasta
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With crumbled Italian sausage, sneaked in greens, marinara sauce and Parmesan. TRULY A ONE SKILLET DINNER! So so easy!

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reasons to make one pot sausage pasta
- One pot miracle dinner. We’re talking fast, easy and oh-so-convenient. This lightening fast dinner comes together very quickly in just 30 minutes from start to finish. And everything (and I mean everything) gets cooked in literally one skillet, one pot, one pan (whatever you want to call it), even the uncooked fusilli pasta.
- Flexible recipe. This is an incredibly flexible and forgiving recipe – add in as many greens or vegetables as needed (or even extra kale). No one will notice the difference as it soaks up all the lovely flavors here. Not a fan of sausage? Add crumbled ground beef or turkey. Don’t have fusilli on hand? Sub rotini. You can easily modify the recipe to what you have on hand for the speediest dinner yet.
what exactly is one pot pasta
One pot pasta or one pan pasta is an easy pasta dish where the uncooked pasta cooks alongside everything else – meat, vegetables, herbs and seasonings – in a single pan. As the dish simmers, the starch from the pasta will help transform some of the leftover pasta water into the most lovely saucy consistency, coating the fusilli so perfectly.

tips and tricks for success
- Use your favorite meat. Italian sausage (sweet or spicy), ground beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your dish. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety. Homemade stock is even better.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Freshly grated cheese goes a long way. While pre-grated Parmesan cheese will save a few minutes in the kitchen, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or domestic Parmesan is highly recommended. This gives the favorited rich, nutty flavors, creating a smooth, creamy consistency.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!

more favorited one pot recipes
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
One Pot Sausage Pasta: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! The beauty of this recipe is that the fusilli pasta cooks alongside the rest of the ingredients for a true one pot meal.
Yes! Pastas with a similar cook time such as rotini or gemelli can be used in place of fusilli.
Spinach, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options to swap out the kale.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.

One Pot Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
- 1 cup diced sweet onion
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 8 ounces fusilli pasta
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 4 cups torn kale
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ¼ cup torn basil leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and onion, and cook until sausage has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in marinara sauce, chicken stock, pasta, bell pepper, kale, garlic, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered and stirring once, until pasta is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in Parmesan.
- Serve immediately, garnished with basil, if desired.
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I have a teenage son, and often a tableful of extra boys for dinner. This is the most requested, talked about, and devoured thing I make them. They don’t care that it’s a bunch of vegetables. “What’s IN this?!” Ummm…kale.
So easy and delicious! Used hot sausage and the while family loved it! Will definitely put in rotation.
Delicious. I’ll be adding this to the regular rotation! So easy to make, and took almost no time at all. Thank you!
So good and surprisingly creamy. Loved it!
So good! And, bonus, my kids ate kale!
Made this dish today. Oh my goodness, it was absolutely delicious. Added some white wine to the browned sausage, and added 2 red peppers. Also added fresh thyme along with the Italian seasoning. This is definitely a keeper.
I recently found your site, what a pleasure. I live in Costa Rica in a small village of about 500 people. Though I have access to some decent sized grocery stores, I have limited access to stuff readily available in the US, like creamed soups, spice mixes, etc. So I make most everything from scratch. Your site rarely uses anything that isn’t made right there in the kitchen, and is most flavorful. Ohhh yeah! Rapidly becoming my favorite cooking site.
Made it exactly as published. It was DAMN DELICIOUS! Sharing with other veggie lovers.S
Can you substitute spinach instead of the kale?
im using this to write a composition and turns out i have a 19/20 so yea best dish ever
Have made this for different guests 3-4x since I found the recipe- a favorite every time. Simple but delicious!!!
I love your site. It’s my go to each day. Such a great selection for healthy food for my family. Thank you.
This was OD its goated on how good it was.
I made this tonight for my husband and parents and they all loved it! The flavor was perfect. I made some minor changes – I used spinach and bowtie pasta (instead of kale and fusilli), hot ground Italian sausage instead of sweet Italian sausage, and omitted the yellow pepper. I cooked the pasta separately and then mixed it in to the sauce. It was perfect!
Planning on making this tonight. Any suggestions when substituting gluten-free pasta? More broth?
Thanks!
A very delicious tasty and easy dish to make! I will making this dish for a young family who just had a baby. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Doubled the recipe and it was delicious! Whole family enjoyed it!
ummm. help? how exactly do you measure 12 Oz of pasta? thx
Eyeball 🙂 Just has to be close, you can probably just throw in the whole box and add a bit more broth. I usually do that since I want to use the entire box.
3 cups of pasta = 12 oz. If you wanna eyeball it, just make sure there’s enough broth/water to cover the pasta. Enjoy!!
I love easy recipes like this. Love the ingredients you chose and how easy it is to switch it up. Great way to use up kale from the garden, too.
Made it as written and it was great!