This cheesy creamy sausage pasta recipe is made in just one pot!
With tender pasta, 3 kinds of cheese, and juicy Italian sausage, this dish has heaps of flavor, and needs very little clean up!
One-Pot Pasta
- This recipe is made in one pot, which means less mess.
- We love the combination of spiced sausage and cheese sauce.
- Use any medium pasta you’d like. Veggies can be added to the mix too.
- This dish reheats well for lunches (add a splash of milk before heating).
Ingredients in Cheesy Sausage Pasta
Sausage pasta often consists of Italian sausage in a tomato based sauce. We love that this recipe is a bit different with a creamy cheesy mac and cheese style sauce.
SAUSAGE: Italian sausage offers a little fennel and oregano flavor and cooks along with the pasta. It adds lots of flavor to this dish. A smoked sausage can be used if preferred.
PASTA: Penne is a great pasta since the tubes hold lots of cheesy sauce. Any medium pasta such as bowtie, rotini, even cavatappi will work.
You may need to adjust cook time (and add a bit of water) if you change the pasta.
SAUCE: The pasta cooks right in the sauce along with the sausage. The starches from the pasta help to thicken while the flavors in the sauce really cling to the pasta.
Be sure to remove the sauce from the heat before stirring in the cheese, too much heat can cause the sauce to separate.
Cheese will thicken the sauce so ensure you have a bit of liquid before adding the cheese. If the sauce gets too thick, you can stir in a little bit of broth.
How to Make Cheesy Sausage Pasta
- Brown sausage & onion in a large pot.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the same pot and simmer until pasta is tender.
- Remove sausage, slice, & return to pot. (As per recipe below)
- Stir in cheeses until melted. Garnish with extra cheese.
If desired, this can be topped with a crumb topping and broiled for 2 minutes. Prepare the pasta as directed and combine 2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle overtop and broil.
Storing Leftovers
Keep cooled leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave. Cheesy pasta sausage tastes better the next day and is a hearty way to energize the rest of the school or workday!
One-Pot Pasta Dishes
- One-Pot Pasta with Chicken – ready in 30 minutes
- Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni – way better than Hamburger Helper
- One-Pot Rotini Pasta – perfect weeknight meal
- Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta – so filling & flavorful
- Easy Lasagna – a family favorite
- Easy Ravioli – with creamy tomato sauce
- Homemade Beefaroni – so hearty & filling
Did your family love this Sausage Pasta? Be sure to leave us a rating and a comment below!
Cheesy Sausage Pasta (one pot)
Ingredients
- ½ pound Italian sausage links
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 cups milk
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth or water
- 1 ½ cups penne
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt more to taste
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ½ cup shredded gruyere cheese
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
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In a large pot over medium heat, brown Italian sausage and onion.
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Add milk, broth, and pasta to the pot along with the sausage and onion. Stir in the cornstarch and seasonings and bring to a boil.
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Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover, and cook for 10-16 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Check the pan frequently and add more water or broth as needed.
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Once the pasta is tender, remove the pot from the heat. Remove sausage from the pot and slice.
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Stir the cheese into the pasta until melted. Stir in the sliced sausage and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Entree, Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine American
© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Bloody oath! This recipe swooped in at the right time, after being on a short-list for the longest time, and proved itself to be a real winner. That was in a several ways for when I first found it. The one-pot meals are on of the biggest lifesavers out there, plus this recipe more or less has what you need on offer. So many recipes have tripped me up with an ingredient that is in a strange category – not necessarily specific or arduous, but not guaranteed to have it on hand. Plus, the better part with meal (and this website in general) is about timing.
For when I finally was able to try it out on someone, I was back from overseas with my big sister, there were not a lot of ingredients in the house, and circumstance saw me at the helm. And there were four little nieces to account for. So, something that was straightforward and wouldn’t take too much effort to produce. With exception to the oldest, they are at that age where it is hard to tell what they would want or like.
With the oldest niece and big sister, both were approving. It is more or less a spruced-up macaroni and cheese, so talking much about it in description is difficult. There was a lot of cheese (subtle ain’t in my dictionary), and I threw in some frozen vegetables for good measure. I cut up a kilogram of chicken sausage to cook beforehand, plus cumin and onion powder in the seasonings. You need to sneak them in on the kids, plus those guys can pad a meal out. Plus, there was enough left-over for school lunches the next day; and I reckon the girls came around, since all the lunchboxes were empty.
Haha I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed this dish, Mikey!
Good morning! Was this recipe updated at some point? The first time I made it my son devoured it, but the last time it didn’t seem the same. He has requested it for his birthday and I’m trying to figure out what I need to do to make it turn out like the first time. I know you don’t have a magic ball to know what I did differently. But if you did update this recipe a year or so ago I would looooove if you’d also share the original!
This recipe was updated in approximately 2020. Here is the original, I hope he loves it!
8 ounces uncooked pasta (I used rigatoni)
Italian sausage or sausage links (such as Hillshire Farms) (optional)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 dash black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
dash of cayenne pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Gruyere cheese (or you can use 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese)
1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese shredded
1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. If using sausage, cook according to package directions. Slice and fry crisp in a pan. Set aside.
3. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until combine. Cook for 1 minute. Slowly add milk a bit at a time until mixed in. Add seasonings. Continue to stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted.
Yes! This is it! Thank you so much, he is going to love it!
hi there,
quick question….what is another good cheese to use other the gruyere? thank you so much for your help and time!
respectfully yours,
Aimee
You can use almost any freshly shredded cheese you’d like, a mild swiss would be a great choice.
hi again,
thank you so much for your help on this recipe. one last question….what do you serving this over white rice instead of pasta noddles??
The pasta is cooked along with the sausage, I haven’t made this recipe with rice before.
Recipes you place on FB look fabulous, but once you click on it you can not forward to your email. I always have to copy the recipe and then go to your site in order to send to me via email. I love your recipes and cook them all the time. It would be so much easier if it was linked to FB then to forward to email.
Hi Michelle, to get to the recipe from Facebook there is a link in the main post as well as in the comments. You have to click it and it will redirect you which you have to accept and then it will take you to the site. I hope this helps!
Holly this was AMAZING!!!! I would highly recommend this recipe to everyone. I don’t like to change any of your recipes, because they are all sooo good, but I didn’t have the cheese you called for so I used what I had, Gouda, Munster and Pepper Jack. It turned out fabulous. Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Your version sounds delicious Gail! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe.
I think this is the first recipe I’ve taken the time to review. From my husband while we were eating. “This recipe is bomb!!!” Lol! My kids weren’t huge fans because there was a lot of pepper so it was too spicy. We just added a little sour cream for them and some extra cheese and they were happy. The next time I’ll do 1/2 tsp of pepper just for them, but I definitely didn’t mind the kick! It’s super tasty and soooo easy!! I had some garlic Gouda cheese instead of the Gruyère and that added an extra little mmmph of garlic goodness in there. Good job on this recipe! Perfect for busy mommas who don’t want to use a lot of dishes and for something slightly different than Mac n cheese! Sooooo good! I saved this recipe!
So happy you all enjoyed it, Katie! Your substitutions sound so yummy!
I just made this recipe for my family and the milk separated. My family really enjoyed it.
Sorry to hear that Judith but so happy your family still loved it. To help avoid the sauce from separating be sure to remove it from the heat before stirring in the cheese, too much heat can cause the sauce to separate.
This was so easy to make and turned our amazing! I made it with gluten free pasta and still perfect. SWP Employee
Hi Holly! Is there a reason you can’t cut your sausage before browning it? It seems it would cut down on the mess.
Hi Dawn, you can cut your sausage if you prefer. We prefer to leave them intact while cooking, we find it keeps them juicy and flavorful.