Tuscan Sausage Pasta

Creamy Tuscan Sausage Pasta makes the ultimate comfort food meal. It’s perfect for family dinners, at home date nights, and for entertaining as well. The combination of sun-dried tomatoes, sausage, and parmesan enveloped in a creamy sauce is always a crowd-pleaser. This recipe is made with gluten-free pasta, but you can use regular pasta too. And if you can’t have dairy, no worries because there’s a dairy-free option as well!

I’ve been making some version of this pasta for well over 10 years now, and we never get tired of it! It’s the perfect date night kind of recipe because it’s indulgent, yet still super easy to make. This means it’s also great for any kind of entertaining as well. (You’ll find a simple menu below above the recipe to make this for a dinner party.)

This pasta dish is well suited to all kinds of pasta shapes. You’ll see both tagliatelle and penne here in the photos. It’s so versatile I can’t think of any type of pasta that doesn’t work here, so the sky is the limit! We make this the most often with penne and bowties, or with noodle shapes like tagliatelle or fettuccini.

Watch how to make this Tuscan Sausage Pasta

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Gluten free pasta – you’ll see both penne and tagliatelle in these photos because pretty much any shape works well in this recipe. Try farfalle (bowties), fusilli, fettucini, or linguine here to mix it up.
• Italian sausage – I like to use mild sausage here because it pairs well with the other flavors, but spicy sausage can be a fun variation.
• Onion & garlic – add a lot of depth to the sauce. But if you’re in a hurry, you can skip the onion and just use garlic. I do this sometimes to save on time, but if you can, definitely take a few minutes to brown the onion.
• Olive oil – is what I use to cook the onion and garlic in along with the sausage fat in the pan. If you have a lot of grease leftover from cooking the sausage that will be enough without any extra olive oil.
• Italian seasoning – adds a lot of flavor to the sauce, but in the summer try omitting it and adding 1 cup of chopped basil at the end of the cooking time instead.
• Heavy cream – makes up the cream sauce here, but you can also use coconut cream skimmed from the top of refrigerated cans of coconut milk. You’ll find it makes a great sauce with these flavors.
• White wine – adds a bright and lighter flavor note to the cream sauce, but it can be omitted. You can also add a teaspoon or two of freshly squeezed lemon juice to ‘brighten’ the flavor of the sauce instead.
• Sun-dried tomatoes – the kind packed in oil is what you’re looking for here. Diced up they add so much flavor to this sauce.
• Spinach – adds a pop of color as well as another serving of veggies. It’s the perfect way to add more veggies because it doesn’t have a strong flavor and works well with this pasta dish. I don’t recommend subbing in kale because it’s too tough for this dish.

Step 1: Start by dicing up the onion, mincing the garlic, dicing the sun-dried tomatoes, and roughly chopping the spinach. Once everything is prepped, you’re ready to start cooking.

Step 2: Start a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Then place a large skillet over medium-high heat and when the skillet is hot, add the sausage. Break the sausage up and cook until just done and browned. Remove the sausage from the skillet and set it aside.

Tip: The recipe calls for 8 ounces of sausage, but I cook a full 1 pound package, and then freeze half for another batch of pasta later.

Step 3: Add the olive oil if there isn’t enough sausage grease in the pan and sauté the onion and garlic together over medium heat until golden brown.

Step 4: Next add the sun-dried tomatoes and Italian seasoning to the pan. Briefly sauté stirring to combine and bring out the flavor of the Italian seasoning. Then add the Dijon mustard and white wine (if using) and reduce until just a small amount is left in the pan before adding the heavy cream.

Step 5: Bring the cream to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook the pasta while the sauce simmers. When the sauce is lightly thickened, add the spinach to the pan and cook just until barely wilted.

Important Note! Cream sauces will boil over very easily, so keep your eye on the pan! You want to bring it to a boil, then control the heat to make sure it’s just simmering, rather than boiling right out of the pan.

Step 6: Once the spinach is barely wilted, add the browned sausage back to the pan.

Step 7: Finally add the freshly cooked pasta to the sauce and simmer for 1-2 minutes to help the sauce properly coat the pasta. During this time season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Add the parmesan and optional basil and serve right away.

Storing leftovers

• To store – place any leftovers into a sealed container and refrigerate for 4-5 days.
• Reheat – add the leftovers to a skillet along with a tablespoon or 2 of water. Cook over medium heat until the pasta has softened and is heated through, adding water as necessary. Cream sauces will ‘break’ when heated without water and leave you with an unappealing bowl of noodles and ‘grease’. By adding a bit of water it keeps the sauce emulsified as it heats through again.
• To freeze – I don’t recommend freezing gluten-free pasta because it tends to be extra soft and even grainy after it thaws.

Tuscan Sausage Pasta dinner party inspiration

• Start with my Antipasto Platter or this Cheese Board.
• Make either my Bacon Kale Caesar Salad or my Best Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad without the chicken. For a dairy-free option, try my Easy Green Salad.
• Serve the salad with this pasta or my Dairy-Free Tuscan Chicken if you’re paleo or grain-free.
• Finish with my Chocolate Mousse Brownies, Healthy Chocolate Tart, or Death by Chocolate.