creamy sausage cavatappi.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 ounces chicken sausage or Italian sausage, sliced
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce, purée, or passata
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups kale, torn into pieces
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/2 pound cavatappi, cooked
1/4 cup reserved pasta water, as needed
RECIPE
Heat olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat.
Once hot, add the sausage and cook until deeply browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the onion and soften, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the tomato paste and combine. Cook until beginning to stick to the bottom of the pot, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and stir. Add the heavy cream and stir. Bring to a simmer and cook until thick, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the kale and wilt into the sauce.
Add the parmesan and stir, then remove from the heat.
Stir in the cavatappi, adding pasta water as needed to thin the sauce.
Serve immediately.
There’s not really any use in telling you how much I love pasta. It would be far weirder if I didn’t, right? Especially something as straightforward as a creamy, tomatoey, rich, and saucy cavatappi, which feels just as ubiquitously loved as a simple mac and cheese. In fact, it’s a similar idea to the famously delicious vodka sauce — minus the grain liquor.
I try to eat a good amount of carbs and an even better amount of protein in order to have the energy to lift and build muscle. Protein pastas are perfect for this and are easy to incorporate vegetables into. If your goals are similar to mine in this way, I recommend using a protein pasta here.
Especially with the advent of gluten-free pastas, noodles have come a long way in the nutritional field; and with some compromise, can be a great way to sneak in more vegetables and legumes. Recently popular is protein pasta, which can have anywhere from 10 to 15 grams of protein per serving from ingredients like chickpea flour or pea protein. This is significant compared to regular pasta, which hovers around 5 or 6. Doubling the protein is great for anyone who wants to get more protein in their diet and happens to love carbs, too.
The other way to make this a healthy protein powerhouse is to use chicken sausage, which has less fat and calories than typical pork sausages. If chicken sausage sounds like a bad time to you, I urge you to take a look at the variety your store carries. Cajun-inspired sausages, garlic and onion, or any kind of pepper flavor works great with this pasta and replicates the meaty flavor of pork pretty well. If calories or fat content isn’t important to you, then Italian sausage works great, too.
As for vegetables, I love one-pot meals. At the end of a long day, I mostly just want to dump my food into one bowl, sit on the couch, and decompress as much as possible while I eat. While you can serve this pasta alongside roasted vegetables or a side of salad, you can also toss the vegetables right into the pasta itself for an all-in-one meal. And if you’re anything like me, this might be a very enticing deal for you.
Some great vegetables to consider adding to this pasta are yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, white mushrooms, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. You can also switch up the suggested green and use spinach instead of kale.
To incorporate vegetables into this recipe, remove the sausage from the skillet and sauté the veggies in the drippings. Then simply continue with the recipe as written, adding the sausages back at the very end to warm through.
If you just want a good, creamy pasta, then this is a super straightforward recipe to make. You can also make this vegetarian by simply leaving out the sausage in the beginning. Vegan isn’t as easy, but can be done by using vegan whipping cream (it cooks exactly the same) and skipping the cheese.
Sausage or not, this recipe is perfect for a quick dinner with very little fuss. It’s so simple, in fact, that you may have most of the ingredients already in your pantry; and it doesn’t get any better than one less trip to the grocery store.
Enjoy.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 22 minutes
Cavatappi (or "Loopdy-Loos") made by Goodles
Brown the sausage, then soften the aromatics
The sauce will be fairly thin and pale at first.
The sauce should be thick after simmering, and the kale will wilt easily. Stir in the cheese off-heat to avoid clumping.
