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:
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!
Kale – to break up the richness of the sauce. Spinach works great here too;
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);
Parmesan – for a flavour boost!
Cream and milk – cream provides the richness, milk thins out the sauce more whilst still keeping the sauce that lovely pink colour!
Garlic – because very few of my recipes don’t have garlic;
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
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! 😂)
I make this ALLLLL the time, it has become the go-to pasta (even over bolognese!) in our household. How would it go as a freezer meal for a friend?
Just made this recipe – so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Will definitely be making it again!
Have been making this recipe since 2020 easily. To the point that I don’t even look at measurements and just eyeball everything.i would say if you add any sides this can easily be 6 portions. Truly a phenomenal comfort dish. My husband says how much he looks forward to his lunch the next day when I make this for dinner night before. I do make a few tweaks for this. I add a diced onion before garlic and omit the parmeson as our household isn’t a fan. To substitute for the parm we add a little soy sauce for that extra oomph to the dish. TRULY RECOMMEND THIS RECIPE!!
Very easy recipe where the most hands-on step was to peel the sausages. Accessible to everyone!
Delicious, flavourful and easy to make a large batch. 10/10!
Has anyone made this with other sausages? as I dont eat pork….
Oh WOW. Great flavours, amazing aftertaste. I did put the whole 500g packet of pasta shells in. Definitely a do againable. Thanks again Nagi.
Recipe was so easy to make and tasted delicious!
Love love love this recipe! Perfect for a cold winter night! I adjust for my gallbladder/heartburn levels so lean beef mince instead of the sausage and baby spinach no chilli flakes. So so delicious!
Absolutely delicious. Made it with kale the first time but found that to be a little too tough. Sub with baby spinach and it is delicious. Thank you Nagi!!
Tired of repeating the same thing but here I go again 😬…..DELICIOUS!!! Hugs to you and baby Dozer 💕
We have a few dairy free eaters in our family and I have made this four times now with flora dairy free cream and nutritional yeast subbed in for the cream/milk and Parmesan and it’s so delicious. You can’t tell it’s dairy free.
Oh my goodness. My new favourite pasta recipe. Honestly DELICIOUS. I substituted the pasta for whole meal pasta spirals. I left out the white wine and I used spinach instead of kale. Wow it was amazing. I used some Italian sausages from Cole’s and they had fennel in them which made it extra delicious.
I shared this recipe with my friend and she just messaged me to tell me she’s on her second bowl. 10/10
Loved this recipe, at the end i put some some baby Bocconcini to make it extra cheesy.
Second time making this and it is creamy, delicious and a favourite with the whole family!! Love recipe tin eats…..all your recipes are 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ you are bringing my family together for delicious meals and causing my husband to fall deeper in love with me at least 4 nights a week 😳🤣🤣❤️❤️ not joking!
This recipe has become one of my staples. I make a big batch and then use the remainder for leftovers. I use regular butcher’s sausages because I’m not a fan of fennel seed and pork sausages are always full of fennel. I also use penne pasta because I think it reheats better than orecchiette. And I use baby spinach instead of kale, but it’s a fantastic, easy recipe.
Absolutely great taste and easy to make! Spent a little more time on preparation cause I’m not yet good with my knife, but the flavour was stunning!
Loved this! Didn’t have passata so used small tin of chopped tomatoes, used Welsh dragon sausage meat from my local butcher and added a couple of spoonfuls of chilli pesto. Lovely creamy sauce with a slight kick of heat. Will definitely be making again. Thank you so much 🤩
Oh my goodness, so delicious. What a winner Nagi.
Amazing! I added finely chopped celery and a quarter red onion with the garlic and some toasted fennel seeds with the other herbs as my sausages weren’t already overly seasoned from the butcher
Absolutely delicious for the whole family! Our two year old loved eating the “hats” pasta (and he’s not even normally a pasta eater!)