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:
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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!
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Kale – to break up the richness of the sauce. Spinach works great here too;
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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);
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Parmesan – for a flavour boost!
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Cream and milk – cream provides the richness, milk thins out the sauce more whilst still keeping the sauce that lovely pink colour!
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Garlic – because very few of my recipes don’t have garlic;
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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
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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 made this over the weekend, totally delicious! I used baby spinach instead of kale and it worked a treat. Great recipe, tasty and easy to make.
Can confirm this is also good made with Spanish style chorizio flavoured pork sausages and a bit of paprika because apparently European sausage is all the same when my husband does the grocery shopping. I used large shells (husband also had to Google orecchiette whilst in supermarket and got closest approximation of), baby spinach and a splash of Worcestershire because that is pretty how I roll with savoury dishes and it is currently being stuffed into his face after 90 minutes of karate training and he says DELICIOUS.
Will try again with the Italian version! The only thing I found was that I had to simmer it longer (10 min+) for it to thicken up to my satisfaction. But very, very tasty!
Absolutely delicious! Easy, quick, so tasty!
Made the Orecchiette Sausage pasta for dinner last night. Very nice! Family enjoyed it and we will add it to our pasta favourites. I only had a salad mix of arugula and young kale so I used that and it worked out although the arugula was a little stringy. Next time I will make sure I have Kale and/or spinach on hand to do the recipe full justice. Always been pleased with any of Nagi’s suggestions. And she is very responsive to comments and questions. Thank you again Nagi
Hi Nagi, just wondering could I use a soft chorizo here, or would it be too over powering?
Thanks and love your website
Thanks Nagi excellent flavour
And throughly enjoyed will definitely make again
One word, YUMMY.. So easy to make. I shared with two others. Thank you so much for being my go to recipe source.
This is sooo unbelievably good!!!
Thanks to you, I’m finding great ways to incorporate kale in my diet.
That’s so great to hear – and it’s such a good green! N x
Hi Nagi, I made this for tea tonight. It was delicious. I didn’t have any cream so I added some milk powder to the milk. It was packed full of flavour. Great idea with the sausages,I’d never thought of using them this way. All plates empty,I’d call that success. Thank you!
I’m so glad it worked Belinda, that’s great to hear! N x
No you are not referring to Dozer, you better not he is priceless . Meal is good and it does need bit more veggies but am not keen on side salad it’s freezing outside thus Am was only 4 C. I could have broccoli on side need lots of green yesterday had another Iron infusion and was told to keep eating spinach and more of beef and gas to be rare .
ok, be good and safe.
Oh no Vera – sounds like you need a decent steak! N x
I have made most of your recipes. And are enjoyed by all Thank you
Fabulous! Cooked this tonight and it was a winner 😍
Your recipes are becoming standard in our house Nagi. We love their simplicity and wonderful flavour. Thank you.
Absolutely outstanding packed with flavour and I got Italian sausages marked down… thankyou Nagi for another 5 star dish
Delish! Added a little more garlic and chilli flakes to satisfy the hoard. We had to settle for ‚shells‘.
Shells are great too! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! N x
Ticks all the boxes for ultimate comfort food! I didn’t have orechiette (I love them but they are hard to get hold of where I live) but I had some good quality fresh pasta and it was divine. Used swiss chard from the garden. This will be a weeknight favourite all winter!!!
Perfect Susi, I’m so glad you loved it! N x
Just made your sausage orecchiette pasta and once again, was not disappointed! I love love love your recipes! When I’m stuck for something to cook, I say to myself, “Self, this is a Nagi Night”. I can always find something new (and old) to whip up for dinner on your website! So good to have recipes from an “Aussie” – no need to try ask Google to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius and no need to leave Australia to find ingredients! Keep cooking and inspiring us Nagi!
That’s great to hear Jill, thanks so much!!! N x
Oh, I have always loved ‘little ears’ which is the translation of the word ! Often cook with such ! This is absolutely lovely to look forward to . . . actually not too many sins if one plays around with milk and cream proportions 🙂 ! Dozer . . . well he only sighted that other pup . . and that one . . . and that 🙂 !!
Sorry to ask something so trivial, but in note #4, shouldn’t it read the opposite of what you have written. Meaning if you want to thin the sauce use plain water instead of the pasta cooking water?
Using pasta water still thins the sauce, but not as extremely as plain water would. To me, the note seems correct as it stands
In the dish, can the mexican chorizo be used, not the salami style chorizo but the casing style that is a bit mushy? Good sausage is hard to find here.
Thanks
An absolute delight. It was completely devoured by my family. Will definitely be making again.
Hi Rick, different flavour but yet you can definitely use that! N x
I was lucky enough to be in Italy in 2019 and enjoyed orecchiette. The shape has something to do with the Pope’s ear, perhaps extended to the priest’s ears listening to confessionals! This looks like a great recipe! Thanks, Nagi!
Interesting Robin!! N x