Everyone needs a good weeknight pasta recipe in their arsenal. This easy chicken sausage weeknight pasta is a quick dish that doesn’t need hours of cooking and simmering but still delivers on taste. It’s a dish we’ve been making variations on for years, but we always come back to the simplest version. Including dicing up the vegetables, this dish really does come together in about 30 minutes. Perfect for busy weeknights. The recipe serves two but can easily be doubled or tripled depending on how many mouths you have to feed.

The beauty of this dish is that the vegetables actually make up the “sauce”. Instead of canned tomatoes, this recipe uses fresh vine ripe tomatoes, along with red bell pepper, onion and garlic, that cook down with some balsamic vinegar to form a nice jus. It’s a great way to clear out the fridge, and the riper the tomatoes the better! We add some fresh spinach towards the end of cooking to really make sure we’re getting our daily dose of veggies and top with fresh basil or parsley.

For this recipe, I usually will use a pre-cooked Italian chicken sausage. We recently tried the Whole Foods brand organic Italian chicken sausages but I can seem to find a link. We’ve also used the Aidell’s brand chicken sausages in the past and love those too. You can use pork sausage as well, but we prefer to keep it leaner with the chicken sausages.

No pasta dish is complete without the essential toppings of fresh basil, parmesan cheese, and our personal favorite, a drizzle of true balsamic vinegar from Modena. The vinegar is unlike any other. It’s thick and sweet, with complexities in flavor similar to tasting wine. Ever since our trip to Modena, we cannot get enough of this liquid gold. We are trying to ration it but fortunately they do sell it on Amazon!

Hope you enjoy one of our all time favorite weeknight meals!

Easy Chicken Sausage Weeknight Pasta

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings: 2 people

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 2 Teaspoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 Large Yellow Onion Diced
• 2 Cloves Garlic Minced
• 4 Medium Vine Ripe Tomatoes Chopped
• 1/2 Large Red Bell Pepper Diced
• 2 Chicken Sausage Links Sliced; Recommend Italian Sausage
• 1 Bunch Fresh Spinach Roughly chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Granulated Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1 Teaspoon Dried Basil
• 1/2 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Optional
• 1/2 Pound Fettuccine or Linguine
• Parmesan Cheese and Fresh Basil for topping

Method

 

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add diced onions and garlic and cook about 5 minutes or until translucent. 
2. Next, add in the diced tomatoes and red bell pepper and cook about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally to help tomatoes breakdown. 
3. Next, add in the balsamic vinegar, herbs and spices along with the sliced chicken sausages. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. 
4. While the sauce cooks, boil some salted water for your pasta. Cook according to package instructions and drain well. 
5. Now that the sauce has reduced slightly (if it becomes to thick, you can use a bit of the pasta water to thin it out), add in the fresh spinach and stir well until the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. 
6. Top the pasta with the sausage and tomato sauce along with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.