Italian Sausage Pasta is an easy 30-minute meal made with simple ingredients! It’s a perfect weeknight dinner to prepare for your family, kids, and friends. Everybody will love this restaurant-quality pasta dish!

30-minute sausage pasta – quick and easy dinner

This Italian-inspired sausage pasta is one of my go-to quick recipes when I am short on time. It’s an easy dinner recipe to have in your rotation for busy weeknights. The Italian sausage is seared and then combined with spinach, mushrooms, and tomato sauce! Then, it’s tossed with bow-tie pasta (farfalle) and topped with red pepper flakes.

This meal is simple, yet the flavors are fantastic! It tastes like a pasta dish from a fine Italian restaurant and might become one of your family’s favorite meals.

If you love 30-minute weeknight meals and looking for more dinner inspiration you might also like these 2 recipes: creamy sausage gnocchi and creamy mushroom pork chops.

Main ingredients

• Sausage. Use crumbled sausage without casings. Any type of pork sausage, spicy sausage, mild, sweet, or Italian sausage will work!
• Pasta. This recipe uses an Italian pasta, called Farfalle, or bow tie pasta. The bow-tie shape of this pasta works very well with the tomato pasta sauce, spinach, and mushrooms. It will add an appealing look to your dinner. Cook bow-tie pasta al dente for best texture.
• Spinach is a leafy green vegetable high in fiber and is a great source of many vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.  I use fresh spinach to add some veggies to this recipe. You can also use frozen spinach – thawed and drained of any liquid. Or, use kale instead.
• Mushrooms. I used crimini mushrooms in this recipe. You can also use white button mushrooms, portobello, or shiitake.
• Tomato sauce for pasta. Use your favorite tomato sauce – it can be a store-bought pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, garlic tomato sauce, etc.

What kind of sausage to use

• Crumbled Italian sausage. I used 15 oz of crumbled mild Italian sausage.
• Italian sausage links. You can also use Italian sausage in casings. I would remove the casings and slice the sausage.
• Sweet, spicy, or mild Italian sausage. You can use spicy, sweet, or mild Italian sausage – in this case, I do recommend adding some spice, such as red pepper flakes.

How to make Italian sausage pasta

Below are general instructions and step-by-step photos. For the full recipe, scroll down to the recipe card.

1) First, bring the pot of water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to the package instructions.  Drain the pasta once it’s cooked.

2) While the pasta is cooked, proceed with the rest of the recipe.  In a large, high-sided skillet, cook sliced mushrooms with olive oil until cooked through but not overcooked.  Remove mushrooms from the skillet.

3)  Next, cook the crumbled Italian sausage with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet for about 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.

4) Then, to the same skillet with cooked sausage, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes.

5) Next, add the tomato marinara pasta sauce and spinach.

6) Once you add all these ingredients to the skillet, bring everything to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, until the spinach wilts, occasionally stirring.

7) Then, add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the sausage mixture, and mix everything well.  Remove from heat. Top with cooked mushrooms when ready to serve.

Recipe notes

• Use red wine. Add a splash of dry red wine (about ¼ cup) to the tomato marinara sauce, if you like. It will add richness and flavor to the sauce, and is a very Italian thing to do!
• What is a good substitute for canned tomato sauce? You can use canned diced tomatoes or canned crushed tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.
• Spice it up! Sausage pasta is the kind of recipe that benefits from a bit of heat. Use red pepper flakes to spice up this dish, especially if the sausage is not spicy.
• Use crumbled sausage or remove casings from the sausage and slice the sausage into small pieces. Do this even if you use sausage links. This will make the texture of the whole dish much better!
• Make this recipe gluten-free by using gluten-free short pasta – there are many options on the market right now.
• Toppings. When serving, top this sausage pasta with shredded Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, or cracked black pepper.
• Salt.  Use your best judgment and don’t add a lot of salt.  Usually, most sausages are quite salty, so don’t add any salt at all or add very little as the whole dish might already be salty enough from sausage.

What to serve with pasta

• Bread. Italian sausage pasta pairs well with baguette, garlic bread, olive bread, or sourdough bread.
• Salad. Throw some greens together with olive oil or balsamic vinegar-based salad dressing. Top with toasted nuts and Parmesan cheese. Don’t miss these delicious salad recipes: 30-Minute Berry Spinach Salad and Arugula Salad with Pears, Apples, and Cashews.

Storage and reheating tips

Because the sausage pasta is made without any cream or cheese, this 30-minute weeknight meal is easy to store and reheat. You can also make this ahead.  Here are some tips:

• Fridge. Store sausage pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
• Freezer.  Freese the pasta in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
• Reheat in the microwave oven. Reheat the refrigerated pasta in a microwave oven for about 1 minute. Taste and reheat for 30 seconds more, if needed.

Reheat on the stovetop. Reheat the Italian sausage pasta in a large, high-sided skillet on the stovetop on low-medium heat.

Ingredients
12 oz pasta farfalle (bow tie) or penne
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz mushrooms crimini, sliced
15 oz Italian sausage mild, crumbled
4 cloves garlic minced
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence
red pepper flakes to taste
13 oz tomato sauce such as tomato pasta sauce or marinara
6 oz spinach fresh
salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta cooks, proceed with the recipe below.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat in a large, high-sided skillet.
Add sliced mushrooms and cook for 3 or 5 minutes until they are cooked through but not overcooked. Remove mushrooms from the skillet.
To the same, now empty, skillet, add crumbled sausage and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the sausage is cooked. Drain excess fat.
To the same skillet with sausage, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, tomato pasta sauce, and fresh spinach. Bring to a boil on medium heat and stir everything well. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes until the spinach wilts to your liking.
Add cooked and drained pasta to the sauce. Reheat.
Mix everything well. Remove from heat.
Season with salt, freshly ground coarse black pepper, and red pepper flakes, if you like. Top with cooked sliced mushrooms.
Tip: use your best judgment about the salt. If the sausage is salty enough, you might not need to add any extra salt.
Notes
Tomato sauce. It can be a store-bought tomato pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, or garlic tomato sauce.
Sausage. I used mild Italian sausage. Italian sausage links can be used, too, with casings removed and sausage links sliced. You can also use sweet or spicy Italian sausage.
Italian seasoning of Herbs from Provence. The mix that I used contained dried rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, and sage.