Here’s to quick & delicious dinners! This Sausage Broccoli Pasta is another dish that can be whipped up in practically the same amount of time that it takes to boil the pasta. You gotta love that!
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“This is one of my favorite recipes ever – we make it almost weekly in my house. It’s so delicious leftover that I’m thinking I’ll double it next time. I use spicy Italian sausage and whatever cheese I have on hand, always turns out good.”
DANIELLE
Easy Sausage Broccoli Pasta
There’s nothing I love more than a hearty pasta that comes together in minutes. I used sweet Italian sausage and a fancy Gouda cheese for this recipe, but you can easily swap the sausage for something spicier or whatever you have on hand. And, there’s no need to spring for fancy cheese as I realized a simple Italian blend or Parmesan would taste just as good.
I usually add fresh vegetables, but I used frozen here to save cooking time and so that I could have a stash on hand in the freezer to make broccoli cheddar soup. There’s no sauce in this pasta dish, but a simple garlic olive oil that coats the sausage, pasta, and broccoli.
Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Pasta
Cost $7.19 recipe / $0.90 serving
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.44)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper ($0.05)
- ½ lb. Italian sausage ($2.09)
- 1 lb. frozen broccoli florets (partially thawed, $1.27)
- 1 lb. bow tie pasta ($1.18)
- 2 oz. smoked gouda (½ cup, $1.47)
- 2 oz. shredded Italian cheese (½ cup, $0.43)
- salt (to taste, $0.05)
- black pepper (to taste, $0.05)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions (boil for 7-10 minutes or until al dente). Drain in a colander.
- While the pasta is cooking, begin the rest of the dish. Mince the garlic. Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and sauté for 1 minute more.
- Squeeze the Italian sausage out of the casing into the skillet. Break it up with a spatula as it cooks. Sauté until cooked through. Add the broccoli (thaw before hand) to the skillet and sauté for 3-5 minutes or just until the broccoli is tender. Turn off the burner to prevent the broccoli from over cooking (it will begin to turn an olive green color if it overcooks).
- When the pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the skillet with the sausage and broccoli. Stir to coat it in the garlic and red pepper infused oil. Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, stir, and serve warm!
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to make sausage broccoli pasta Step-By-Step Photos
Cook the pasta: Begin by boiling the water to cook the pasta. By the time the water reaches a boil and the pasta is cooked, you’ll probably have the rest of the dish ready and waiting for the pasta to be stirred in! I like bowties for this recipe because the shape adds great texture to the dish.
Cook the garlic: While you’re waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, mince the garlic. Add it to a large skillet with the olive oil. Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
Add crushed red pepper: Add the crushed red pepper flakes and cook for about a minute more. Be careful not to burn the red pepper flakes. If they begin to brown, turn the heat down a touch. The olive oil is now getting infused with the flavors of the red pepper and garlic—yum!
Pull out the sausage: This is the sausage I used. You could use hot Italian sausage, or even smoked sausage if you like. I only used half of this one-pound package and froze the rest for another recipe.
Squeeze the sausage: Squeeze the sausage out of the casing into the skillet (or slice it – your choice) and cook until done all the way through. The seasoning in the sausage will add further flavor to the oil in the pan, which ultimately acts as a sauce on the pasta and broccoli.
Add the broccoli: Add 1 lb. of broccoli to the skillet. The broccoli should be at least halfway thawed or else it will add to your cooking time. I also ended up cutting the pieces a bit smaller. Cook the broccoli just until it is fork tender and then turn the burner off.
Add the pasta: By this time the pasta is probably cooked and drained. Add it to the skillet.
Coat well: Stir to coat the pasta in the flavor infused oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the cheese: Sprinkle the cheese over the top and stir it all together. I only used about one cup of cheese total. Because the dish uses oil as a sauce, too much cheese would make this dish really heavy.
Serve: Enjoy every bite of this amazing Sausage Broccoli Pasta!
Serving Suggestions
I love chowing down on this pasta with a side of homemade garlic bread, or if I’m in the mood for more cheese, I’ll make homemade cheesy garlic bread, they are both great options to soak up the flavored oil left in the bottom of my bowl. If I have any salad fixings in the fridge, I’ll whip up a simple side salad or a green bean salad.
storage and reheating
Store leftover sausage and broccoli pasta in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Reheat over the stove or in the microwave. If the pasta is dry, you can drizzle it with a touch of olive oil.
I was actually really disappointed with this recipe. It was so so so bland! I used hot Italian sausage because that’s what I had and I doubled the amount of cheese because who doesn’t love cheese but it was still very bland. If needs something and I can’t put my finger on it.
I was flavorful to me did you use minced garlic and sausage that had flavor! I used italian mild sausage and it help make it flavorful
I have made this recipe several times over the past few years, I’m surprised I didn’t write a review yet because your recipe is the first time I heard of this and the one I always use, with a few minor changes. I use fresh broccoli crowns and boil them with the pasta for the last few minutes instead of sauteing frozen crowns with the sausage; and after browning the sausage, I add some butter and white wine and simmer for a few minutes to make some sauce, then combine it all together with the pasta and broccoli and shred way too much parmesan over it LOL. I omit the Gouda because I rarely have it on hand and I doubt it’s ‘ruining’ this for me. It’s an easy, dirt cheap, and absolutely delicious meal. I ate it tonight with some fresh baked garlic bread sticks. Thank you so much. This is one of my top ten favorite quick, easy, affordable and delicious dinners.
Do not heat the garlic on medium or even medium low heat. It must be low or you will have burned garlic. Read the recipe through several times as I did not understand that I needed to set the oil aside so I prepared the sausage in the oil. Not to worry. It still turned out pretty good.
Found some Cajun sausage in the freezer and needed to find something to make it with. I had already had some bowtie pasta in the pantry and also frozen broccoli bits. It was as if I was meant to make this recipe!
The husband loved it, great mix of flavors and the flavor infused oil was perfect. I did definitely add more than 4 cloves of garlic, as a garlic fanatic though.
I used breakfast sausage as we had a hog butchered and the order got messed up. I have oodles of breakfast sausage to use.
I was looking for something cheap to make so I used the BudgetBytes app and filtered by my cost of serving size that I wanted to stay within and saw this recipe. This was the first of 3 I chose and yum yum! I loved the garlic crushed red pepper infused oil. I knew there’d be a lot of flavor just from that. Hubby loves crushed red peppers too so I knew this fish would be a hit for him. Lots of leftovers too since it’s just him and I.
Oh and we just used the shredded Italian cheese without the smoked Gouda.
One day I found myself with extra pork sausage and didn’t know what to do with it. Looked up some recipes, saw this and and tried it and it is fantastic. This is a meal I regularly make now and it is always a favorite and requested. I use bulk spicy pork sausage and grate a piece of Asiago cheese as a slight variation from the recipe. Also, if you have Chanterelle mushrooms, they’re excellent in this. Saute them in with the garlic early on. Fantastic!
So easy & so delicious!!! Love it!!
My most favorite dish to make when I’m around family. Otherwise, if I have it all to myself, I have to do 20 extra minutes of cardio. Well worth it as its a hearty meal.
This was yummy! We were pressed for time and had sausages thawed so I gave it a shot. So delicious :) I have also toned it down for the kids by adding cream of mushroom soup.
This is a really good pasta dish, my only issue is that i believe it needs a nice white sauce to go with it. The garlic and oil are not enough to really keep the dish hydrated.
My fiance and i tried the dish with a white sauce and we feel it made the dish way better for us.
This was delicious!! I had an extra bunch of parsley to use up so I made your Parsley Pesto first with fussilli pasta and then combined it with this recipie! Followed the rest of this recipe accordingly (adding the pesto pasta and omitting the cheese at the end since the pesto pasta needed no additional richness/ cheese). Delish! Thank you for not one but two delicious recipes that made for a very yummy dinner :)
Also forgot to say that I used frozen green beans instead of broccoli cause that’s all I had on hand and it worked out great.
By far one of my many favorite recipes on this site! I made this lastingly for the first time and my boyfriend loved it! He decided we needed to make it a few times a month! I used mozzarella and Parmesan instead of Gouda and Italian cheese as it was all I had. And used fresh broccoli. So good!! Thank you for this website. I love it!
Hi Beth! Just wanted to let you know that I’ve made this recipe a couple of times, and last night my boyfriend declared that this recipe is officially his favourite pasta recipe. We love to make and enjoy this one together, so thank you so much for sharing it, and for all the great work you do with Budget Bytes. Cheers!
This is one of my favorite recipes ever – we make it almost weekly in my house. It’s so delicious leftover that I’m thinking I’ll double it next time. I use spicy Italian sausage and whatever cheese I have on hand, always turns out good.
This recipe turned out delicious tonight! As I am a lazy cook, I first cooked the pasta in my skillet, adding in the fresh broccoli the last few minutes of cooking, then drained both into a bowl, wiped the pan dry, then started the instructions for the recipe. So, one pan to cook and only one pan to clean! Thanks once again for a delicious recipe!