Here’s to quick & delicious dinners! This Spicy Sausage and 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!
I wanted to buy some spicy Italian sausage for this recipe, by my local grocery store only had sweet Italian sausage. Guess what? It was still delicious! And, if you’re adventurous, you could even try some smoked sausage. Yes ma’am!
I also bought some fancy-schmancy smoked gouda to go on the pasta because I thought the creamy, smokey cheese would be a nice contrast to the spicy red pepper… and it was! Because the cheese was so expensive, I decided to mix it with a less expensive blend of generic “Italian blend shredded cheese.” In the end, I didn’t end up needing much cheese at all, so I could have used straight gouda and still not broken the bank. If you don’t want to spring for the fancy smoked gouda, just the shredded Italian blend or some parmesan would have been great on here. You don’t need a lot, just a light sprinkle to balance the flavors and textures.
I chose to use frozen broccoli florets because they’re already blanched prior to freezing. This makes the cooking processes much faster. Plus, you can buy it and stash it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it without worry that it will get wilty and moldy like it does in the bottom of your refrigerator!
Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Pasta
Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Pasta
Servings 8Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.24)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.28)
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper ($0.03)
- 1/2 lb. Italian sausage ($2.75)
- 1 lb. frozen broccoli florets ($1.63)
- 1 lb. bow tie pasta ($1.29)
- 2 oz. 1/2 cup smoked gouda ($1.47)
- 2 oz. 1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese ($0.63)
- to taste salt & pepper ($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 saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and saute for 1 minute more.
- Squeeze the Italian sausage out of the casing into the skillet. Break it up with a spatula as it cooks. Saute until cooked through. Add the broccoli (thaw before hand) to the skillet and saute 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
Step By Step Photos
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.
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 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!
This is the sausage that I used. Like I said, 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 later.
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 to the skillet. The broccoli should be at least half way 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.
By this time the pasta is probably cooked and drained. Add it to the skillet.
Stir to coat the pasta in the flavor infused oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
These are the two cheese that I used. One inexpensive, one expensive. I originally mixed up one cup of each, but ended up only using about half of it for this dish (or one cup total). You could use just one of these cheeses and the dish would still be great.
I just shredded the gouda and mixed it into the less expensive cheese.
Sprinkle the cheese over top. 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.
Stir everything together.
…and enjoy every bite of this amazing Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Pasta!
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!
I made it once on the whim after looking for a decent sausage recipe. When I came across the blog and this recipe in particular, I gave it a shot, and since that day, this dish has become a favorite of mine.
Another winner!! I had some whole wheat mini she’ll noodles, some discounted precooked italian sausage I wanted to cook instead of freeze this time and figured a sausage noodle dish would be good.. Happened to have 2 slices of pre-cut smoked Gouda you’d normally put on a sandwich.. Shredded it up and added a lil motzarella and a lil parm..main change was cuz I didn’t have crushed red pepper so I used 2 spices I got in bulk at winco- red pepper-garlic and this smokey favored mix that has some red pepper flakes, so it really completed the small amount of smoked Gouda I had.. Hubby and I really liked it though for us I couldda made it more spicy, and I had to tell the 9 year old to slow down and she still had seconds! lol thanks for another awesome recipe I need to add to the usual rotation!
Love it, as usual! Great way to use 2 leftover Italian sausage links I froze when I made something else (i used spicy, bc life’s too short not to make food as spicy as possible!). My boyfriend was skeptical about the smoked gouda, but I used it anyway, and wow, it really made the dish! He agreed.
First off, I cook alot but seldom make pasta. I never found it to be very exciting or special. That opinion changed completely when I tried Beth’s Italian Wonderpot. Awesome.
That success caused me to try this recipe, even though I hardly ever buy or eat sausage. Oh my goodness, my husband and I fell in love with the simplicity and deliciousness of this recipe. It will definitely become a regular in our household.
Thank you!