One-pot spicy sausage pasta – really simple to make and half the washing up of regular pasta.

Skip to the recipe

As a food blogger I’m convinced that I should be up to date with the latest food trends. Poised, ready to share an amazing recipe showing off the next big thing before you’ve even heard of it. Sadly that’s not me. Despite my desire to be amazingly fashionable, I’m sadly not 🙁

This recipe is definitely one of those “way behind the times” sort of recipes. I first heard of one-pot pasta over on My Fussy Eater about six months ago and in that post Ciara said she was behind the times with it, so what does that make me!

For anyone even further behind the times than me, one-pot pasta is exactly what you’d expect. Rather than cooking your pasta and sauce separately, you simply chuck it all in together and let the pasta cook in the sauce.

Aside from the obvious reduction in washing up (always welcome in my opinion), a huge advantage of cooking this way is that the pasta absorbs the flavour from the sauce. If you ever suffer from bland pasta then this is the solution.

I’ve included a chopped chilli in the recipe for anyone that likes it really spicy. Personally I like the level of spice that comes from just the sausages – a little heat, without hurting your mouth. However, Jon prefers his food a little more spicy so I do add chopped chilli if I’m making it just for him. If I’m cooking it for us both then I’ll simply stir in some cayenne pepper to his just before serving to add some extra heat.

Usually when I share a pasta recipe it doesn’t matter whether you choose fresh or dried pasta. However, for this dish I’d recommend using dried. The reason for this is that the pasta cooks in the sauce. The sauce needs to cook for about 20 minutes to reduce to the right consistency (otherwise you’ll have spicy sausage pasta soup) which is just the right amount of time for the dried pasta to cook.

One-pot spicy sausage pasta

Prep Time:5 minutes

Total Time:25 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 6 spicy sausages
• 1 red chilli – optional
• 4 servings uncooked dried pasta – I used 300g Pennoni Rigati but I’ve also used penne and fusilli. I wouldn’t recommend using fresh pasta for this recipe simply because the pasta is cooked in the sauce. As fresh pasta has a much shorter cooking time the sauce wouldn’t have sufficient time to reduce.
• 2x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp olive oil

Method

1. Finely chop the chilli (if using) and chop the sausages into slices about ½cm thick.
2. Heat the olive oil (1 tsp) in a large pan on a medium heat. Add the sausages and chilli and fry for a couple of minutes until the sausages have browned. Stir regularly to stop the burning.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes (2x 400g cans), pasta (300g) and soy sauce (2 tbsp). Top the pan up with water so that the pasta is just covered – Don’t add too much as the sauce won’t have enough time to reduce while the pasta is cooking.
4. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes until the pasta is soft with a little bite. Stir occasionally to prevent it burning. If the pan starts to look too dry before the pasta is cooked add a little more water.
5. Serve

Given the soy sauce is quite salty I don’t add any additional seasoning. However you may want to add some to suit your tastes.

1 or your 5-a-day fruit and vegetables

This is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you want to learn more about how this is calculated.

Free from…

• Corn-Free
• Dairy-Free
• Egg-Free
• Nut-Free

The ingredients for this recipe are commonly available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.

Linking up to…

Pasta please with Baking Queen 74 and Tinned Tomatoes