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Creamy, cheesy, spicy and savory, this One Pot Cheesy Sausage Pasta meal has got it all!
This cheesy smoked sausage pasta skillet recipe is one of our favorite One Pot Meals. Savory smoked sausage, creamy melted cheese, fragrant garlic, onions, and tomatoes all come together in a one skillet meal that is sure to please everyone in the family.
Love meals with smoked sausage? Be sure to try our Instant Pot Jambalaya with Shrimp and Sausage or Smoked Sausage and Potato Sheet Pan Dinner.
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Cheesy Sausage Pasta Recipe
One Pot Meals are the best for busy families like mine because they are simple, come together in a flash and require minimal equipment and clean up. Some of our favorite one pot meals are One Pot Chicken Spaghetti, One Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles and this One Pot Cheesy Smoked Sausage Pasta.
The best part is it takes only about 20 minutes from start to finish. These one pot meals have become my go-to weeknight dinners. Pair with a garden salad and you’re good to go!
I love smoked sausage, and it was perfectly paired with the other flavors in this recipe.
Ingredients for Smoked Sausage Pasta
- Smoked Turkey Sausage – Any smoked sausage will work, like beef or pork or a kielbasa.
- Diced Onion – To add flavor with the sausage.
- Minced Garlic – Fresh garlic is best, but you can also use jarred minced garlic.
- Chicken Broth – I always buy the low sodium broth so I can control the salt.
- Rotel – Tomatoes with green chiles to add some heat. You can use just regular tomatoes if you want to keep it mild and more kid friendly.
- Heavy Cream – For the sauce.
- Small Pasta – Like rotini, penne, or farfalle.
- Cheddar-Jack Cheese – I like to use the mixture of jack and cheddar, but either will work.
- Green Onions – for garnish.
How to Make One Pot Cheesy Smoked Sausage Pasta
See recipe card below for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- The steps for this recipe are quick and easy so you can bring it to your dinner table fast. Saute your Hillshire Farm Smoked Turkey Sausage (or any brand will do) with some onion and garlic, then add a can of Rotel diced tomatoes, pasta, cream, chicken broth, and seasons. It only takes about 15 minutes to cook – add some cheese and you’re good to go!
- Cook onions, garlic and smoked sausage in a large, deep saute pan and cook until lightly browned.
- Add chicken broth, Rotel tomatoes (or plain tomatoes, with or without chiles is your call), milk, pasta, and seasonings. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover it with the lid and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened and the pasta is tender.
- Turn off the heat and stir in ½ cup of sharp cheddar cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cover for about five minutes to allow cheese to melt. Feel free to use your favorite melty cheese, like Mozzarella or Jack. Pepper Jack would add even more heat so that’s another great option.
FAQs
Reheating pasta with a cheesy sauce in the microwave can be tricky. Add a couple of splashes of milk or cream per serving, then heat at 50% power for several minutes, stirring at one minute intervals. This will keep the sauce nice and creamy. There’s nothing worse than a cheese sauce that has become curdled and separated. If your pasta was not stored with a sauce, drizzle on a little olive oil before heating.
This type of sausage has been smoked, which means it’s fully cooked in the process. There is no need to cook it again, but you may want to heat it up.
Smoked sausage is already fully cooked, so you aren’t really cooking it, but warming it up. The best way to do this is in a skillet so you can get some char and caramelization on the sides of the sausage. It adds a ton of flavor and really brings out the juiciness of the smoked sausage.
How To Serve and Variations
We love to serve this sausage pasta with a copycat Olive Garden Salad and maybe some fresh bread on the side.
You could add your favorite veggies to the mix, like mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, or broccoli. Just saute with the onions and let cook fully with the pasta and sausage.
Bring the heat even more by adding some red pepper flakes. Or, use a spicy andouille sausage instead.
Storage and Reheating
Storage – Place leftovers in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.
Freezing – You can freeze this dish, but the cream might break down upon reheating so I don’t really recommend it.
Reheating – Thaw first if frozen. Reheat in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until hot.
Helpful Tips
- If there is still a lot of thin liquid, you can spoon some of that out before adding the cheese. You do need some liquid to create the sauce though, so keep that in mind.
- Green onions are a great garnish, but you could also use fresh parsley.
- Feel free to use whatever pastas you might have on hand, and don’t be afraid to mix and match.
- For an extra savory, salty component, add some bacon.
More Smoked Sausage Recipes
- Sausage & Apple Sheet Pan Dinner
- One Pan Creamy Tortellini and Sausage
- White Bean, Kale & Sausage Soup
- Smoked Sausage and Potatoes Hash
- Smoked Sausage and Potato Sheet Pan Dinner
One Pan Cheesy Smoked Sausage Pasta Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound Smoked Turkey Sausage sliced
- 1 cup diced onion about 1 medium onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic about 2-3 fresh cloves
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes (with or without chiles) (like rotel)
- 1/2 cup milk or heavy cream
- 8 ounces dry pasta like rotini, penne or farfalle
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese
- 1/3 cup sliced scallions for garnish
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a 5 quart saute pan over medium high heat. Add onions and sausage and cook until lightly browned. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Add chicken broth, tomatoes (undrained), milk, pasta, and seasonings. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until pasta is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
- Turn off the heat and stir in ½ cup of cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cover for about five minutes to allow cheese to melt. Top with sliced scallions and serve. (You could also broil for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese).
Notes
Nutrition
*Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Simple Recipes Cookbook. For a complete list of recipes on the site, be sure to go here.
Yum!! I made this a few days ago and wasn’t sure what to expect. I accidentally bought hot (spicy) smoked sausage. Made with jalapeños. Not just regular smoked sausage like the package that was sitting above it was when I grabbed two. Oops! So I went on a search to use it up. Came across this one and went for it. I didn’t change anything except for the type of sausage I used and I cut it into smaller pieces. It was great! I usually have a complaint about everything I make, (even when it is good and my husband really likes it) but not this time. (Btw..my husband likes my cooking and is so happy when I actually tell him a meal is good and not make comments about “next time I will…”) He loved it and told me not to change a thing. It definitely had heat to it. Good, spicy heat! I liked it so much that I went to the same store to get more while it was fresh in my mind and they didn’t have it. Ugh! But, I will keep looking and will make again soon. Thanks for the recipe. A new favorite to add to my list!!
Hi Kristin! I made your one-pot cheesy smoked sausage pasta for the family this evening and it was a huge hit! The kids simply said, “mom, this is a keeper”, so we’ll definitely be having it again. Thank you so much for sharing!
This is a staple in our house now! I like to add spinach to it and whatever other veggies I have on hand. I love that you can adapt the recipe to whatever you have on hand and that it’s so quick!
Looking forward to eating this tonight, just a heads up it says “On Pot” pasta in the recipe title!
This was REALLY amazing! Loved all the flavors.. it does need a few minutes at the end to simmer uncovered to thicken up. Also, added some diced green and red bell pepper when cooking the onion down – gave extra flavor and color. Thank you for sharing this super simple recipe!
I want to make this for dinner tonight but my family won’t eat it with the tomatoes in it, if I leave the tomatoes out should I add more broth?? Thanks!!
Just made this recipe for lunch today. It was delicious! Thank you for sharing it on Pinterest.
Attempted this dish for the first time today. It came out great and is delious. Everyone in my family really enjoyed it and even took seconds.
Made this to tonight!!! My husband usually doesn’t like pasta but I thought I would give it one more shot with this dish…and I finally found a winner!!! Had a little more liquid then we would have liked but we used it to our advantage and dipped our garlic bread in it!!! 🙂 so glad I found this….will be adding it into our rotation!!
I normally don’t leave comments but this meal was incredible. My entire family loved it. We used milk rather than heavy cream and used mild cheddar instead of cheddar-jack but wow! This was a total winner; thank you for sharing.
I want to see if I can use this in a freezer meal swap group I’m part of. Would I cook it as directed, cool and freeze in a gal bag, then instruct ladies to reheat in skillet? Do you think it would work to do it like that?
I have a question. The heavy cream is that heavy whipping cream that’s all that I found at the store?
Yes, it would be called “heavy whipping cream” because it’s just cream, not sweetened.
Super sad…wrote down the ingredients and now the recipe is gone.
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Made this last night with chicken!! I used a whole bag of grilled chicken breast strips the frozen ones. It is over a pound… I cooked the frozen chicken a little, it is already pre cooked, and added half a box of mini bow ties. When all ingredients were in skillet I noticed the pasta needed more liquid so I added more stock and cream till pasta was just covered but not submerged. It came out really good! Needed salt, but my husband cannot tolerate salt so that worked out good! If it was too runny I had planned on spooning out some liquid however that was not necessary!!
tried this last night- it was incredible! i played around with the recipe a bit however and made more pasta to feed my family of five and thus increased the amount of chicken broth. i used less onion as well, and waaaay more cheese than the recipe instructed (which is more to my liking, lol). it turned out amazing though, and i used sausage with a spice which gave it amazing flavor with the garlic and onions!! yum!
Made this tonight – my fiance looved it. I threw in some peas that were left over in the fridge.
Thanks for sharing!!!
This was unbelievably good! I did not expect it to be so tasty! I mixed up the cheeses a little, used cheddar, a mozzerella/parmesan blend and some leftover fontina I had. It was so yummy this will definetely be in my rotation! Thanks for the recipe.
This was amazing!!!!! Hubbs went back for seconds, and even ate some cold this morning bc he couldn’t wait to heat it! Will make again and again! Thank u!!!
My family loves this. It is my go to meal. I do call it my Oompa Loompa meal because at least one of my twins always looks like one afterward.
I just had to tell you how much my husband and I loved this recipe! Made for dinner tonight and substituted Italian sausage, we will also add pepper jack cheese next time too. Soo good!
Hi, this looks uber yummy…just a quick question; do you drain the tomatoes? or do you put them in with the water in the can….thanks 🙂
No draining – the liquid from the tomatoes helps to cook the pasta.