Orecchiette has one big thing going for it that other pastas do not: its cup shape makes it the perfect vehicle to hold special pasta sauces. The creamy tomato sausage pasta sauce featured in this recipe is orecchiette worthy!
Decadent? Yes. Have salad tomorrow!
Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Don’t you hate it when you twirl an enormous mound of spaghetti on your fork, only to find that you’ve just got pasta and no toppings??
Even more annoying is when you bring it up to your mouth and loose strands slap around your mouth, causing pasta sauce to splatter all over your face – and your white top.
Such are the challenges of our pasta lovin’ life.
Thankfully, the Italians came up with a solution – little cup shaped pastas called “orecchiette” which act as little scoops to hold pasta sauce. How clever is that?! 🙌🏻
Truth be told, I do not know if orecchiette pasta was invented to solve the pasta-slapping/sauce splattering/toppingless spaghetti problem.
I just know that it’s wildly practical – and we should all use it more often!! 😂
(PS And you can, in fact, use it for virtually any pasta recipe. Orecchiette Bolognese, anyone??)
Today, I’m sharing a flavour loaded, decadent creamy tomato sausage pasta sauce that I deem to be orecchiette worthy. The little bits of sausage nestled in those little cups, blanketed in that creamy sauce … mmmm! It’s so good it should be illegal!
“Orecchiette” means “ear” in Italian which refers to the ear-like shape of this type of pasta.
What you need for Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Here’s what you need:
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Italian sausages – the better the sausage, the better the sauce! Here in Australia, Italian sausages only come in link form (as pictured above), but squeezing the meat out is cinch to do. In fact, anyone with a lifetime of cooking sausages knows full well the meat wants to come out of the casings!
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Kale – to break up the richness of the sauce. Spinach works great here too;
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Tomato Passata or puree – this thickens the sauce as well as providing lovely tomato flavour to cut through the richness of the cream and sausage. Tomato Passata, called tomato puree in the US, is just pure, plain tomato that’s pureed and strained – nowadays found in everyday supermarkets in Australia. But don’t fret if you can’t find it – crushed tomato or even tomato paste can be used in a cinch (quantities in recipe);
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Parmesan – for a flavour boost!
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Cream and milk – cream provides the richness, milk thins out the sauce more whilst still keeping the sauce that lovely pink colour!
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Garlic – because very few of my recipes don’t have garlic;
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Italian herbs – staying on theme with the sausages. Just use a store bought premix. Not the end of the world if you don’t use dried herbs in this, we get loads of flavour from the sausages; and
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Red pepper flakes (chilli flakes) – for a hint of warmth. Optional!
How to make Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Nothing unique about the making part! The sausage pasta sauce comes together in the same time the orecchiette pasta takes to cook (12 minutes), making this a great quick dinner recipe.
KEY TIP: Avoid the cheap sausages that are a uniform pink colour – they are loaded with fillers. Look for sausages with specks of meat and white fat, as pictured above.
On the side
I’d love to be able to tell you that this is a complete meal…but it’s a wee bit light on the greens! 😂 So add a fresh salad on the side to round it out – here are a few suggestions:
You know something? I just realised that I forgot to mention another very important characteristic of orecchiette pasta:
YOU CAN EAT IT WITH A SPOON
Which means it falls into a very important category of food I call Couch Food, being food you can eat with a spoon without taking your eyes off the TV.
Or trashy novel. Or a rag-mag.
Just something that requires minimal brainpower so you can concentrate on really savouring Every. Single. Bite! – Nagi x
PS I suppose one could eat this while reading something a little more intellectual, but I just think my brain would implode with all that delicious going on in my mouth as well as having to think while reading? My brain just doesn’t have the bandwidth for that.😇
Watch how to make it
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Orecchiette Sausage Pasta in Creamy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 400g / 14oz orecchiette pasta (or other pasta)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 500g / 1lb Italian pork sausages , meat squeezed out of their casings (see video, Note 1)
- 1/4 cup white wine , anything not too sweet (sub water)
- 1 cup tomato passata (called "tomato puree" in US, Note 2)
- 3/4 cup cream , heavy/thickened
- 3/4 cup milk (any fat %)
- 1/3 cup parmesan , finely grated
- 1 tsp Italian herbs (Note 3)
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (chilli flakes)
- 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
- 3 cups (packed) kale leaves , torn into bite size pieces (or baby spinach, swiss chard, Tuscan kale etc)
- Parmesan , for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook pasta according to packet directions MINUS 1 minute. Just before draining, scoop out 1 cup of pasta cooking water and set aside. (Note 4)
- Heat oil in a very large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and cook for 15 seconds.
- Add sausage meat and cook, breaking it up as you go, until there are some little golden bits - about 4 minutes.
- Add wine and cook, scraping the bottom of the skillet to remove the golden bits, and allow wine to evaporate - the winey smell will disappear.
- Add remaining ingredients except kale. Stir well, bring to simmer then turn stove down to low and simmer gently for 2 minutes to bring all the flavours together.
- Add pasta and kale. Toss well for 1 minute to coat pasta well with the sauce - it will thicken. If the sauce gets too thick, use the reserved pasta cooking water to loosen it up (Note 4).
- Serve immediately, garnished with freshly grated parmesan
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More creamy pasta recipes
For all those days when nothing but a creamy pasta will do….
Life of Dozer
Tip run today – boot was full of rubbish. (Yes Dozer, I’m referring to YOU! 😂)
Nagi this is an amazing dish. That pasta was really perfect for this recipe. I’ve ordered your book on Amazon and am impatiently awaiting its release in North America. My fb name is KatKat Karu. Thank you for inspiring me to be a great cook. Xoxo
This is one of the easiest, most delicious pasta recipes I’ve made for my family. My 10 year old daughter, who is a very picky eater, loved it. The Italian Sausage is key… I almost swapped it for ground beef and it wouldn’t have been as good. Thank you for this recipe!
We LOVED, LOVED this! I had Campanelle noodles on hand, so I used that (eyed 14oz cooked noodles as I cooked entire 16oz box). Our Jewel (Chicagoland grocery store) has a GREAT store Italian bulk sausage – used that. I was going to add peas (we don’t do kale), but decided to leave it without greenery so the kids would eat it (they prefer veggies on the side of everything, not in) – and they DEVOURED it! My son ate the small container of leftovers for lunch yesterday on their election day off from school. This was just an awesome, ridiculously simple recipe – I’ll add cooked peas or blanched asparagus for my/hubby’s serving next time, but will definitely make “plain” again for the teens!!!
You´re right,them little pasta shells are genious. We made this for dinner last night and it was delicious, my daughter and her partner were over for the night and me and my partner were so glad they are vegeterians so now we have enough left over for dinner tonight, can´t wait, I actually feel like eating it all for breakfast but I wouldn´t be very popular with the other half if I did that, great recepi Nagi x
Made this yesterday – well, had the hubby make it (with homemade orecchiette & homemade sausage) WOW YUMMYYYY – this is new on my top 10 go-to, simple & delicious & fast meal. Thank you so much!
Oh Nagi! Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!! Absolutely delicious. We used pork and fennel sausages from the butchers, they were perfect.
OMG, this was so delicious. My brother and sister stopped in to say Hello. Their timing was just right, I had just completed making this dish so we sat down and ate the whole thing. I added rolls and a salad, it was so good. I can’t wait to make again. I love your recipes.
Very good! I used 1,5 cups of half and half and frozen chopped kale. My kids love this and it’s great as leftovers the next day.
One of my favorite pasta dishes. I have been subbing with frozen kale due to the produce supply issues lately and it’s just as good as ever.
Hi, Nagi
Made this for dinner tonight. Apart from accidently adding more pepper, it was delicious! A bunch of kale looked too big so i used a 120g bag of baby spinach.
Thanks,
Leslie
I made it tonight for 7 and it was delicious, thanks Nagi you’re amazing.
Everyone licked the bowl, even the autistic child who hates everything I cook unless it is chicken nuggets and a couple of your other recipes. Swapped out Kale for baby spinach. For reference, I used Coles Finest Italian style Pork Sausages. I will try a different brand next time to see if it offers a different flavour profile. In the words of my husband “I’m really full but I don’t want to stop eating it”
Thankyou for stating which Cole’s snags you used as I’m going to Coles now to get what I need to make this for dinner tonight. 😋😋😋
I used Farfalle and baby spinach.
Super tasty!
Thanks Nagi!
I am happy you enjoyed it Holly!! N x
This is absolutely delicious! Navi-you have the recipes I have been looking for all of my life. So happy to have found you and started cooking you delicious meals!
I meant to type NAGI!!!
Made this tonight for my very fussy husband and son. They loved it. Even went for seconds! didn’t have Italian sausages in the freezer so used some Cambridge Chipolatas I already had. Was delicious. Will definitely make again.
OMG is all I have to say!!! This dish was out of this world 🌍
Can I freeze this at all, or will the cream make it split
Freezing not recommended…sorry! N x
This was delicious and will be added into my regular recipe rotation! I used fresh baby spinach and it was great. I also drained the fat from the sausage so that it wasn’t too greasy. Can’t wait to make this again, thanks!
Delicious and easy weeknight meal! Everyone loved it. Thanks for another winner, Nagi 😊 (I accidentally used 500g pasta but there was still enough sauce and sausage with the original quantities)
WOW Nagi. This was insanely good. We made it last night, followed the recipe to a t and absolutely loved it. I’m not ashamed to admit that I decided to eat some of the leftovers for breakfast today lol this has definitely gone onto my favourites list which is so good because it was really fast and easy to make.
A family favorite!
Thank you for sharing such a delicious and quick family recipe.