This spicy Italian sausage and pasta dish is super easy to make within 30-minutes and flavoured with delicious sweet roasted tomatoes.
It doesn’t take a lot of ingredients to make a delicious mouth-watering dish. This pasta dish meal has a tangy, yet the sweetness from the roasted tomatoes and the spicy sausage gives it the extra flavour that makes this meal so filling and scrumptious. The added bonus is it only takes 30-minutes make and your family will love it!
Helpful Tips:
Sausage: choosing a spicy Italian sausage gives this dish that extra flavour and punch that we all enjoy. I have given three options to prepare this sausage for this dish. You can grill the sausage links for about 20 minutes, or cut them into 1 inch slices and pan fry them for about 5-10 minutes and finally you cook them in the oven for about 30-40 minutes which means the meal will take a little longer to prepare.
Onion: cook long enough to caramelize the onion so it adds the sweet onion flavour to this dish.
Garlic: is an ingredient that adds a pungent flavour and is a must in most if not all Italian dishes.
Roasted tomatoes: when you’re time is limited, or you don’t have enough tomatoes to roast your own, using organic canned roasted tomatoes is the way to go. It has just as much flavour and goodness as though you roasted your own.
Spinach: is a super healthy green to add to this dish.
Herbs: adds the Italian flavours to this dish.
Sugar: by adding a little bit of sugar to a tomato sauce it helps to reduce the acidity.
Parmesan cheese: gives this dish flavour and a lovely way to garnish.
Easy Roasted Tomato and Spinach Pasta with Spicy Italian Sausage
Ingredients
- 8 oz rigatoni pasta
- 4-6" links spicy Italian sausage
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 -28 oz can organic roasted tomatoes
- 2 cups fresh organic spinach
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp raw fine sugar
- 1 sprig fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Fill a saucepot with water and bring water to a boil, add salt then add the pasta. Cook until al dente. Before you drain the pasta, reserve about 3 tablespoons to add to the skillet with the pasta.
- Options in preparing sausage: 1st option: is to cut the sausage into 1 inch slices and pan fry until cooked. Set aside. 2nd option: Heat a grill, and cook sausage for about 20 minutes until cooked. Set aside. 3rd option: place the sausages in a baking dish and bake at 375°F for 30-40 minutes. Remove and once slightly cooled, cut into one-inch slices. Set aside.
- Heat a large skillet at medium temperature and add olive oil, then add onion and sauté for about 5-7 minutes until the onion starts to caramelize. Add garlic, and cook for about one minute. Stir in the roasted tomatoes, and brake down the larger pieces of the tomatoes. Add thyme, oregano, salt and sugar. Cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes until the tomato liquid is reduced.
- Add sausage and spinach, cook until the spinach has softened. Once the pasta is cooked, add to the skillet and add about 3 tbsp of the boiling water into the skillet, and then add the roughly chopped fresh basil. Stir until the pasta is coated.
- Sprinkle parmesan cheese to your liking.
Nutrition
Once the tomato sauce has thickened, stir in the spinach, sausage and pasta until it is well combined. Add the basil at the last minute. Serve and garnish with Parmesan cheese.
Garnish with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil. Simply add garlic bread or ciabatta as a side. Enjoy!
