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September 16, 2025
Orecchiette Sausage Pasta in creamy tomato sauce Recipe
Orecchiette has one huge factor going for it that different pastas don’t: its cup form makes it the right car to carry particular pasta sauces. The creamy tomato sausage pasta sauce featured on this recipe is orecchiette worthy!
Decadent? Sure. Have salad tomorrow!
Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Don’t you hate it whenever you twirl an infinite mound of spaghetti in your fork, solely to search out that you simply’ve simply obtained pasta and no toppings??
Much more annoying is whenever you convey it as much as your mouth and free strands slap round your mouth, inflicting pasta sauce to splatter throughout your face – and your white prime.
Such are the challenges of our pasta lovin’ life.
Fortunately, the Italians got here up with an answer – little cup formed pastas known as “orecchiette” which act as little scoops to carry pasta sauce. How intelligent is that?! 🙌🏻
Fact be instructed, I have no idea if orecchiette pasta was invented to unravel the pasta-slapping/sauce splattering/toppingless spaghetti drawback.
I simply know that it’s wildly sensible – and we must always all use it extra typically!! 😂
(PS And you may, in reality, use it for just about any pasta recipe. Orecchiette Bolognese, anybody??)
As we speak, 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 these little cups, blanketed in that creamy sauce … mmmm! It’s so good it ought to be unlawful!
“Orecchiette” means “ear” in Italian which refers back to the ear-like form of such a pasta.
What you want for Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Right here’s what you want:
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Italian sausages – the higher the sausage, the higher the sauce! Right here in Australia, Italian sausages solely are available in hyperlink kind (as pictured above), however squeezing the meat out is cinch to do. In reality, anybody with a lifetime of cooking sausages is aware of full nicely the meat desires to come back out of the casings!
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Kale – to interrupt up the richness of the sauce. Spinach works nice right here too;
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Tomato Passata or puree – this thickens the sauce in addition to offering beautiful tomato flavour to chop by the richness of the cream and sausage. Tomato Passata, known as tomato puree within the US, is simply pure, plain tomato that’s pureed and strained – these days present in on a regular basis supermarkets in Australia. However don’t fret should you can’t discover it – crushed tomato and even tomato paste can be utilized in a cinch (portions in recipe);
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Parmesan – for a flavour enhance!
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Cream and milk – cream supplies the richness, milk thins out the sauce extra while nonetheless conserving the sauce that beautiful pink color!
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Garlic – as a result of only a few of my recipes don’t have garlic;
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Italian herbs – staying on theme with the sausages. Simply use a retailer purchased premix. Not the top of the world should you don’t use dried herbs on this, we get a great deal of flavour from the sausages; and
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Pink pepper flakes (chilli flakes) – for a touch of heat. Elective!
Tips on how to make Orecchiette Sausage Pasta
Nothing distinctive in regards to the making half! The sausage pasta sauce comes collectively in the identical time the orecchiette pasta takes to prepare dinner (12 minutes), making this a fantastic fast dinner recipe.
KEY TIP: Keep away from a budget sausages which might be a uniform pink color – they’re loaded with fillers. Search for sausages with specks of meat and white fats, as pictured above.
On the aspect
I’d love to have the ability to let you know that this can be a full meal…but it surely’s a wee bit gentle on the greens! 😂 So add a contemporary salad on the aspect to spherical it out – listed below are just a few solutions:
You already know one thing? I simply realised that I forgot to say one other crucial attribute of orecchiette pasta:
YOU CAN EAT IT WITH A SPOON
Which suggests it falls into an important class of meals I name Sofa Meals, being meals you may eat with a spoon with out taking your eyes off the TV.
Or trashy novel. Or a rag-mag.
Simply one thing that requires minimal brainpower so you may think about actually savouring Each. Single. Chew! – Johnsat x
PS I suppose one might eat this whereas studying one thing a bit of extra mental, however I simply suppose my mind would implode with all that scrumptious happening in my mouth in addition to having to suppose whereas studying? My mind simply doesn’t have the bandwidth for that.😇
Watch tips on how to make it
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
Notes
1. Sausage – the better the sausage, the better the pasta! Avoid the very cheap sausages used for backyard BBQ’s that are a uniform pink colour (pink = fillers = no good for cooking like this). Look for sausages where you can see chunks of meat and fat, like you see in the recipe video and photos.
If using link sausages (in Australia, we only get Italian sausage meat in sausage form), squeeze the meat from the casings (it’s easy, demo in video).
2. Tomato passata – pureed, strained pure tomatoes, sometimes labelled Tomato Puree in the US (here’s a photo of Mutti Tomato Passata sold at Walmart). Readily available in Australian supermarkets nowadays, alongside pasta sauces. If you can’t find it, use crushed canned tomatoes and simmer rapidly for 5 minutes to reduce it more.
3. Italian Herbs – just use a store bought pre mix. Otherwise, make up your own with equal amounts of thyme, basil, oregano, parsley and a pinch of rosemary.
4. Pasta cooking water – the starch in the water thickens the sauce when tossed with pasta. So if the sauce needs thinning, best to use the pasta cooking water instead of just normal water. Great traditional Italian pasta cooking technique to use in every pasta recipe!
5. Nutrition per serving. Never said it was diet. I said it was DELICIOUS! Shave off 80 calories by using light cream or half and half instead of full fat cream (sauce will still be nice and thick from the tomato).
Did You Make This Recipe?
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