Easy One-Pot Pasta with Sausage and Kale
This easy one-pot pasta dish comes together in 30 minutes — making it the perfect weeknight meal. It’s nutritious and comforting, but not too heavy. With a few simple swaps, it can easily be made dairy-free and gluten-free!
I know it’s a little taboo, but I rarely meal plan. Instead, our meals revolve around pantry basics and seasonal produce. To make the most of seasonal eating, I reserve heavier meals like pasta, roasts, and soups for the colder months. However, I must admit — by the time Fall rolls around, we have an intense craving for warm, rich food.
This easy one-pot recipe is the perfect example of seasonal eating in action. It uses pantry basics I always have on hand — onions, garlic, carrots, pasta, and home-canned bone broth — but lets me use up our homemade sausage and kale from the garden. Then, I add a little heavy cream and parmesan cheese to make this extra creamy.
My mouth is watering writing this — honestly, this is one of my favorite quick Fall meals. I look forward to it every year!
Don’t forget to pin this recipe!
Make this easy one-pot pasta dish your own:
- Up the spice by using hot Italian sausage, or by adding crushed red pepper flakes to the plated dish
- Try out different short-cut pasta shapes
- Stretch it by adding cannellini beans
- Up the fall flavor by adding cooked butternut squash chunks
- Turn it into a soup by adding additional broth or whole milk
How to make it gluten-free
This one-pot pasta with sausage and kale is easily made gluten-free! Simply swap the pasta with brown rice, lentil, or chickpea pasta. In my experience, you’ll need to increase the broth by ½ cup and add a few minutes to the cooking time.
Swaps to make this dairy-free
This easy one-pot meal can be made dairy-free by trading the heavy cream with a dairy-free alternative or swapping 1 cup of broth with unsweetened alternative milk like almond, coconut, or soy milk. Then, swap the parmesan cheese for nutritional yeast.
Creamy One-Pot Pasta with Sausage and Kale Ingredients
- Butter or olive oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Ground Italian sausage
- Pasta
- Chicken broth
- Kale
- Heavy cream
- Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper
- Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Tips:
- You can use ground Italian sausage or Italian sausage links — just remove the sausage casing! For a richer dish, I’d recommend pork sausage. Sometimes, I use our homemade venison sausage, which isn’t nearly as fatty as pork sausage. It still tastes good and makes the most of what we have in the freezer.
- Any short-cut, forkable pasta will work here. Fusilli is my preference, but farfalle (bowtie), gemelli, penne, orecchiette, or even ziti will do just fine!
- You can use low-sodium homemade or store-bought broth, but I highly recommend homemade bone broth. Not only does it taste better, but it also increases your dish’s protein, vitamin, and mineral content.
- You can use a bunch of fresh kale, pre-chopped kale, or even frozen kale. I recommend a denser kale like Lacinato kale (sometimes called Dinosaur, Tuscan, or Black kale), as it tends to hold up better. I grow Lacinato kale in my garden and freeze it for recipes like this. Note: if you’re using bunched kale leaves, you may want to remove thicker stems to make it easier to chew.
Tools you may need:
- Large lidded pot or Dutch oven — I’m using a 5.5 quart Dutch oven here
- Knife — I can’t live without this 6 inch Victorinox knife. It stays sharp for a long time but is also easy to sharpen.
- Chopping board
- Garlic press
- Measuring cups
- Grater or microplane
How to make One-Pot Pasta with Sausage and Kale
In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Add diced onion and carrot, and saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Next, add ground Italian sausage (or sausage links with the casing removed) and brown, breaking up any large chunks. Then, add minced garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, salt, and pepper, and cook for 1 minute.
Sauté diced onion and carrots
Add the garlic and seasonings to the browned meat
Add the chicken broth and pasta to the pot, cover, and bring to a low boil. Cook the pasta for as long as the package recommends, typically 8 to 10 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent any sticking.
Adding the chicken broth
The pasta will take 8-10 minutes to cook
Once the pasta is cooked, stir in the chopped kale, replace the lid, and simmer over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes.
Finally, stir in the heavy cream and grated parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve and top with additional parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes (if you want a little heat!).
Adding the heavy cream
Adding the grated parmesan
If you tried this one-pot pasta recipe and loved it, I would appreciate it if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you xx
Easy One-Pot Pasta with Sausage and Kale
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 tbs butter or olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage mild or hot
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried rosemary
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 16 oz dry pasta like fusilli, gemelli, penne, or farfalle
- 4 cups kale chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese plus more for topping
- 1 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, melt butter. Add diced onion and carrot, and saute until soft.
- Add ground Italian sausage and brown, breaking up any large chunks.
- Add minced garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, salt, and pepper to the pot and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth and pasta to the pot, cover, and bring to a low boil. Cook the pasta for as long as the package recommends, typically 8 to 10 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent any sticking.
- Once the pasta is cooked, stir in the chopped kale, replace the lid, and cook over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Finally, stir in heavy cream and grated parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve and top with additional parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes (if you want heat!).
