This stove-top Cheesy Penne Pasta with Sausage main dish is made with a delicious, homemade Italian sausage meat sauce. It’s a weeknight dinner your whole family will love.
Pasta is often my go-to dinner. Everyone in our family likes pasta especially our young boys (cutie pies.) They could eat spaghetti 5 times a week. They’re true Italians in that sense.
They also like Italian sausage so, combining the two is a great idea. This recipe is similar to my Instant Pot Penne, Sausage and Spinach.
We love this recipe almost as much as my Italian Baked Ziti with Ricotta Cheese recipe except, this recipe is faster to make because it’s not baked!
I’m no stranger to Italian recipes. Coming from Italian immigrant parents, I know a lot about Italian cooking.
I love this recipe because of the Italian ground sausage meat sauce. It’s so delicious! Plus, this recipe is made with simple ingredients and is perfect for a beginner cook who wants to impress her/his new spouse.
This recipe can be a meal-in-one or serve it with a green vegetable or salad and bread.
Penne Pasta with Sausage
You may be tempted to make this recipe with jarred, store-bought tomato sauce but, I’ll tell you that making this recipe as is will yield a great-tasting tomato sauce that you just can’t get in a can.
I always make my own tomato sauce- either from fresh tomatoes or from canned tomatoes. It’s so EASY and tastes GREAT! You just can’t get that in a supermarket.
You can bake this recipe if you have the time. Just put it in a casserole dish and bake it for 25min at 350F.
Substitutions
- Use ziti or any other tubular pasta instead of penne.
- Use an Italian shredded cheese blend instead of mozzarella.
- For a chunkier sausage meat sauce, use diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce (puree.)
- Don’t have Italian seasoning? Use 1 tsp of oregano or parsley.
Sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on this dish. It’s so good.
Make this delicious Cheesy Penne Pasta with Sausage for dinner this week and wow your family!
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Creamy Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce
Feta Cheese Pasta TikTok Recipe
See more pasta recipes!
I took this recipe to Weekend Potluck.
Cheesy Penne Pasta with Sausage
Ingredients
- 16 oz penne pasta or any tubular pasta
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onions
- 16 oz ground Italian sausage
- 28 oz canned tomato sauce such as Hunt's
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- First, begin making pasta according to package directions.
- Next, in a large pot, add oil and onions. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Then, add ground Italian sausage to the pot. Break sausage into small pieces and brown the sausage for 5-10 minutes.
- Next, add tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Stir, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, drain pasta (when ready.) Put back into the pot you cooked it in and add mozzarella cheese and sausage meat sauce when it's finished. Stir together and serve.