Italian Sausage Pasta with Broccoli
This easy recipe for pasta with Italian sausage and broccoli is flavorful and dairy-free. It’s ready in 30 minutes which makes it great for weeknight dinners! Try it with bow tie pasta or penne.
Why I love this Italian sausage pasta recipe
This morning I found this article (via Joy the Baker) from Thought Catalog called I’m Sick of Summer. It completely sums up how I feel about summer, especially since we’re in the middle of a heatwave right now.
Except, I don’t have to deal with the monotony of year-round job and I do have the excitement of a new hockey season each fall to remind me that something new is coming. But really, this is the reason I look forward to fall every year.
This recipe is totally unrelated to being sick of summer. I have no interesting story to tell you about pasta with Italian sausage and broccoli, other than saying that I love this meal.
I used to make it all the time, but somehow I forgot all about it. It’s been forever, but it’s just as delicious as I remember it.
Get ready to soak up the sun with some fresh new recipes that are perfect for summer!
Here’s what you’ll need to make it
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How to make pasta with Italian sausage and broccoli
My trick for adding fresh broccoli to any pasta dish – instead of cooking the broccoli separately, add it to the pot about 4-5 minutes before the pasta is supposed to be done (check the package instructions). Strain the pasta and the broccoli together, and you’ll have less dishes to do.
Side note: Since I’m living in wonderful France, I haven’t been able to find any real Italian sausages so I’ve been buying Toulouse sausages and adding my own seasonings to make them taste like Italian ones.
I used spices from this recipe for Italian Sausage Seasoning Blend and just put in a pinch of this and a little of that until it looked seasoned enough – I also added a bit of dried basil. Luckily, if you can buy Italian sausage (spicy or sweet) at your grocery store then you can ignore everything you just read.
Tips for making this pasta with Italian sausage
This recipe would be great with:
More pasta recipes you’ll love:
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Italian Sausage Pasta with Broccoli
This easy recipe for pasta with Italian sausage and broccoli is flavorful and dairy-free. It’s ready in 30 minutes which makes it great for weeknight dinners! Try it with bow tie pasta or penne.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage meat, casings removed, if needed
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 pound package farfalle pasta
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook the farfalle according to package directions, adding the broccoli to the pot 4 minutes before straining.
- Heat a large, nonstick skillet to medium-high. Add the sausage meat and brown, breaking it into small pieces. Continue cooking, stirring as needed until the sausage is golden brown and caramelized.
- Add olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper. Reduce heat and continue cooking until the pasta is ready.
- Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before straining the pasta and broccoli.
- Add broccoli and farfalle to the skillet – adding 1/4 cup of pasta water at a time until the sauce has reached the right consistency. Stir in the nutritional yeast before serving.
- Category: Mains
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 519
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 160.9 mg
- Fat: 14.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 80.8 g
- Fiber: 4.5 g
- Protein: 18 g
- Cholesterol: 14.3 mg
Keywords: easy, dairy free, 5 ingredient
Recipe inspired by Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes.
Last Updated on April 7, 2022 by Melissa Belanger
This post contains affiliate links. I may earn commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. I will never recommend a product I don’t use or trust.
Hi! For step 3, where am I adding the oil, garlic and red pepper to? The sausage, I’m assuming? Thanks!
Yes. Just add it into the pan with the sausage!
Your guess is right
WHY do you need the yeast and what doesn’t it do ?
The yeast just adds a savory, cheesy flavor to the recipe, but you can totally skip it if you don’t already have it!
We didn’t add the yeast we made our own Alfredo sauce and added it instead.
That sounds great!
Made this last night for my family. (Got 2 kids aged 4 and 1). Overall it went over very well!
I wish the sauce was a bit, saucier. Seemed like the flavour was really in the sausage, but didn’t transfer to the pasta. Maybe I did something wrong?
*Note: I don’t have nutritional yeast, we just topped ours with some fresh Parm.
This was so good! First time using nutritional yeast and I really liked the texture it added. My family of 5 (including two 12 year olds and a 16 year old) all loved it! I did add a little extra olive oil, but will definitely make again.
★★★★★
I’m confused to how much olive oil to add. Is it 3 tablespoons? Why does it says 3 tablespoons cup..
I’m so sorry. That was a typo. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! It’s fixed now.
If I wanted to use the peccorino cheese how much would i use?
About 1/4 cup!
My husband and I made this dish tonight. We loved it. Substituted Parmesan for yeast. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
★★★★★
I really liked this simple recipe but I need tweak it some. I added more garlic and a couple more T. Of olive oil. I also used only 3/4 lb pasta because as I was mixing everything together it appeared like the pound was too much. I did use all the pasta water that was recommended. I also added ore cheese as I tossed the pasta.
★★★★
Is the Nutrional Yeast mandatory for this recipe? Never heard of it, or used it in the past.
Thank you.
No. It’s not! It just adds a cheesy flavor to the dish. I used it in place of parmesan cheese.
Very good! Loved the Nutritional Yeast in it. Just right. I did use the whole cup of water.
Will definitely make this again!
★★★★★
What is nutritional yeast
I’m in Aus.
What is nutritional yeast? Is it the same as bread-making yeast?
Nutritional yeast is NOT the same as bread making yeast. It is a substitute for a cheesy flavor if you are cooking dairy free. I am not a big fan of it so I added it to the “sauce” instead of on top. It really helped the flavor. You can always switch it out and use other dry cheeses such as parm for recipes that call for it (that are savory!).
What is nutritional yeast and where do you get it?
As another person said, it seemed like the sausage and the pasta didn’t flow together. I think it was the lack of sauce. Not bad but I probably won’t make it again.
★★★
Made this tonight but gluten free. Used GF rotini, and substituted spinach and tomato for broccoli. Excellent change up to our Wednesday dinner. Thanks.
This was so good! I’ve been trying to use less oil, so I subbed 3 tablespoons of aquafaba, and it came out perfectly. I also added in about half a jar of roasted red peppers I had lying around. I’ll definitely be adding this to my rotation.
★★★★★
What is the serving size?
One serving is about 1 ½ cups when the pasta is cooked.
Loved this as it was very easy. Next time, I will add the broccoli with only 2 minutes to go in the cooking process as I found the broccoli to be overcooked. I also added twice as much red pepper flakes to spice things up.
Hi I am going to be making this recipe with the next few days and I was wondering how much of the pecorino cheese I would need thank you
We loved this dish! I made this as written only adding three TBS of butter at the end of cooking to add a little richness. My hubby raved about this! I will definitely be adding this to my rotation!
★★★★★
I can’t pin this recipe!
So tasty!
★★★★★
Great recipe. Very easy and turned out great. Only thing I added was sautéed onions while browning the Italian sausage.
★★★★★
I was surprised at now good this was. Thanks for sharing, I’ll make this dish again.
This was wonderful! I added sun dried tomatoes, Trader Joe’s black garlic & Soffritto Seasoning blend. My husband had too go gluten & dairy free & he loved it. Will definitely make again!
Is the nutritional yeast necessary?
We use nutritional yeast as a substitute for grated parmesan cheese in our house. So, no it is not necessary for the recipe, you can skip it or try using vegan parmesan shreds instead.
I have made this so many times. It is delicious. My only sub is parmesan for the nutritional yeast as I always have parm on hand. Wonderful week night meal that comes together quickly. After making it a few times, I felt like my big cast iron skillet was finally seasoned enough to toss it all together in that pan and oh my, it got even better!!! Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
Great, simple weeknight meal. It’s a great recipe to start with as so much can be done with it. I added onions for a couple minutes before adding in garlic. Also, added broccoli to sausage mixture to cook instead of boiling it. Loved the spice from red peppers. Definite hit with the family. Will make again!
★★★★★
I really liked it! I expected it to be kind of dry without a “sauce” but I wasn’t really missing a sauce because it was so flavorful! I subbed turkey sausage and also did parmesan instead of the yeast. Super easy, quick weeknight dinner!
★★★★★
Made this for dinner tonight. It was very flavorful. I halved the recipe as it was two of us. You know how pasta absorbs the liquid then it’s kinda of dry the next day. Halving was a good decision. I followed suggestions on timing of broccoli and onion addition. My addition was a generous pinch of fresh herbs to oil. I understand adding the pasta water to your desired consistency, I added one cup to half the recipe and thought it was just right in turns of sauce consistency. Thanks for this simple yet flavorful pasta dinner.
★★★★★
Could I use chickpea pasta?
You can use whatever pasta you like. Follow the package instructions for al denté and the recipe should work just fine!
This is a staple in our home! I’m dairy free so I love this option with nutritional yeast. Sooo good, the whole fam loves
★★★★★
I was a little hesitant but this turned out great. Unfortunately I had to leave out the red pepper flakes for our kids. I’m not the biggest fan of italian sausage but I will be trying this again, possibly with ground turkey or leaving out the meat and serving it with grilled chicken on top. Plenty of ways to play around with it!
★★★★★