One pot pasta with chicken sausage, spinach and peas
One pot pasta with chicken sausage, spinach and peas is a creamy, tender all-in-one pasta dinner with big flavor that’s ready in just 25 minutes.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 (12 oz.) package chicken sausage, sliced in ¼-inch pieces (see notes)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes (undrained)
- 10 oz. spaghetti noodles
- 3 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid over medium heat.
- Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken sausage. If using a fully cooked chicken sausage, simply brown the pieces in the pan for 2-3 minutes to add some extra flavor. If using a raw chicken sausage, remove it from the casings and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until the sausage is cooked through.
- Add the garlic, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and stir well.
- Add the chicken broth and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil. (You can increase the heat temporarily to make this happen faster.)
- Add the spaghetti noodles and stir lightly to get them distributed. It’s OK if they aren’t completely submerged in the liquid.
- Cover the pot and cook over medium low to medium heat, maintaining a simmer, for 6-7 minutes.
- Uncover the pot, add the spinach and peas and stir to mix through. Turn off the heat, cover the pot again and let it sit for 2-3 minutes, until the spinach is wilted, the peas are warmed through and the noodles are al dente.
- Add the cheeses, stir to combine and serve.
Notes
Chicken sausage: You can use any flavor of chicken sausage that works with these flavors. A sweet Italian style chicken sausage is my go-to, but roasted pepper, sun-dried tomato or roasted garlic flavor would work well too.
A fully cooked sausage, like Al Fresco or Aidells, makes this an even quicker, easier recipe. You’ll just give your pieces a quick sear to add some flavor.
But you can use a raw chicken sausage too. (I’ve done both ways, depending on what I have.) Just remove the casing, cook the sausage through, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks, and proceed with the recipe.
Finally, you could also substitute a raw turkey sausage and use that instead. Very flexible, very forgiving.
Love veggies? Me too. You can add mushrooms to this if you’d like. Sauté them along with the onions until they wilt and give off most of their liquid. Roasted red peppers would go well here too. Slice them and add at the same time as the tomatoes.
You can use a can of regular diced tomatoes or fire-roasted diced tomatoes.
Like it spicy? You can use all of, or even more, of the crushed red pepper to give this a little kick. Go for the fire-roasted diced tomatoes too. You could also serve it with some sriracha or hot sauce. 🌶
Cheeses: This pasta dish can be as cheesy as you like. Want lots of cheese? Add another cup of shredded mozzarella and some extra Parmesan. Want less cheese? Skip the mozzarella and just use Parmesan.
If you want to make this dairy-free, skip the mozzarella and Parmesan. But I’d recommend adding some nutritional yeast in place of the Parmesan cheese.
Spaghetti: You can use regular or whole grain spaghetti noodles. You could substitute a thin spaghetti, but you’ll need to adjust the cooking time a bit. I believe this would also work with a gluten-free spaghetti, but I haven’t tried it that way.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 218kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 527mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g
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