Creamy Sausage Rigatoni

Rigatoni in a creamy spinach and Italian sausage sauce is a delicious pasta dinner. The sauce is flavored with fennel, chili flakes, and Italian seasoning, making it incredibly flavourful.

Rigatoni pasta in a creamy spinach and ground sausage sauce

This sausage rigatoni has the most flavourful cream sauce. If you would like to take a break from your regular tomato pasta sauce, then you gotta try this pasta recipe. Caramelized sausage is infused with crushed fennel, chili flakes, and herbs. Perfectly creamy parmesan sauce without being heavy or rich.

A Bowl of this sausage pasta is pure comfort. Rigatoni is a tubular-shaped pasta, that holds the sauce well. My daughter especially loves this pasta shape. But you can use any shape of pasta.

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What you need

Below is the list of ingredients you need for making Sausage Rigatoni pasta with sausage, along with a few other variations.

Rigatoni – These are tube-like pasta. You can also use any other shape of pasta of your preference.
Sausage – Fresh Italian sausage ground or link sausage. I have used mild Italian Sausage. Remove the casing and crumble.
Spinach – Chopped spinach or if using frozen, thaw it and squeeze excess water from it. kale is also a good alternative.
Seasoning and spices – Fennel is widely used in Italian cuisine. Crush fennel roughly in a mortar and pestle to release some of its oil. Chilli flakes for heat. Italian seasoning and pepper.
Onion and garlic
Olive oil
Flour – to thicken the sauce.
Cream – heavy cream for a rich sauce. For a lighter version can use half and half.
Dry white wine – I love the complex flavor that White wine gives. Reduce white wine to half the quantity until the alcohol smell is gone.
Chicken stock
Freshly grated parmesan

Sausage Rigatoni – Steps to make

Ground sausage doesn’t need long to cook. Place a pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, start making the sausage pasta sauce.

Saute onion and garlic in hot oil until aromatic. Cook ground sausage ( if using link sausage, remove the casing and break it into smaller chunks with the back of a spatula).
Midway through, add crushed fennel, pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and pepper. Brown the sausage.
Deglaze the pan with wine, and scrub the bottom of the pan to release any brown bits.
Once the wine has reduced to less than half, stir in the flour and cook for a minute
Next is to add chicken stock, cream give everything a mix. Add chopped spinach and freshly grated parmesan. Mix well.
Add cooked pasta. Switch off the flame and toss everything well. To adjust the sauce consistency add more pasta cooking water.

Storage

Like any other pasta, you can refrigerate leftover Sausage Rigatoni pasta in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Pasta might soak up all the liquid, so while reheating add some warm chicken stock or water to loosen it.