This easy Creamy & Spicy Tomato and Sausage Pasta is a one pot dish with an extra kick of crushed red pepper that will spice up your weeknight dinner plan!
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Despite the warm sunshine during the day, it’s obvious that the cold weather is starting to settle in again at night. This time of year, the meals I make and crave start to get heavier and a bit more filling. Nothing seems to satisfy those cravings better than a big, warm bowl of pasta!
Coming from an Italian family, weekends are made for pasta dishes and a loaf of crusty garlic bread! The weekends are also meant for spending quality time with family. All of my ongoing projects can take up a big chunk of my day, including evenings sometimes. So I try to stay unplugged as much as possible during the weekend.
Instead of worrying about e-mails piling up and deadlines to hit over the weekend, we’ve been packing up the puppy and going for walks in the park on Saturday mornings, lighting up the fire pit at night, and spending good, quality time with each other. That’s so important and so easy to forget when our lives seem to be filled with one constant to-do list after the other!
Last weekend, after a morning of running around the park with Hunter and an afternoon of catching up around the house, I decided to make a pot of spaghetti with a sausage meat sauce for dinner. I had recently picked up the ingredients for a pasta night at Stop & Shop while I was making my rounds during the week.
This dish was made in one pot with the help of Barilla Pronto Pasta. This no-boil, no-drain pasta makes it easy to whip up one pot pasta creations in no time, so you can spend more time with the family and less time cleaning up! I browned my crumbled sausage ahead of time (I like to keep it on hand sometimes to add to pizza and breakfast scrambles), so all I had to do was add it straight into the sauce.
Lately, I can’t get enough hot and spicy food. There’s usually a bottle of hot sauce or crushed red pepper on the table during dinner. I changed up my usual tomato sauce by making it creamy instead this time, and kicked up the heat by adding some extra crushed red pepper right in the sauce!
- • 1 box Barilla Pronto Spaghetti
- • 2 jars Barilla Marinara sauce
- • 1/2 cup heavy cream
- • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or less
- • 1 pound crumbled Italian sausage, sweet or hot, browned
- • Fresh basil leaves
- • Salt and pepper, to taste
- In a large saucepan or pot, add the entire box of Barilla Pronto Spaghetti.
- Pour 3 cups of cold water over the spaghetti, making sure to cover the pasta completely.
- Turn the burner to high, stirring occassionally for about 10 minutes, or until most of the water has been absorbed.
- Add the jar of marinara sauce and stir to coat pasta.
- Next, incorporate the heavy cream into the sauce.
- Add the garlic, crushed red pepper, and sausage.
- Season with salt and pepper, then mix in 2-3 torn fresh basil leaves.
- Serve with garlic bread, crushed red pepper, and parmesan cheese.
- I used 2 jars of marinara since we like our pasta drenched in sauce (got to have extra for dipping our bread into!). If you don't like as much sauce, use 1 jar of marinara instead.
You know that dinner’s good when my husband takes leftovers to lunch more than once during the week! I can see a lot more of these one pot pasta dishes happening in our future! Make sure you grab some New Barilla Pronto Pasta next time you shop at Stop & Shop, Giant Food Stores, or Martin’s Food Markets. Barilla Pronto Pasta is also available through Peapod!
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