Skillet Italian Sausage And Penne
A One Skillet Wonder
Skillet Italian Sausage and Penne is the answer to busy night dinners. This cooks up quickly with very few ingredients.
I know I can make this when I want dinner on the table in about thirty minutes. Enjoy Italian sausage links, sautéed peppers and onions, and a brothy sauce tossed with al dente cooked penne pasta.
Top with Parmesan cheese and spicy peppers for some kick.
Dinner Every Night
I try to cook a meal for Mister Tipsy every night. I work from home and he is out in the cold weather working long hours until eleven at night.
Therefore, no matter what, I like to have something to offer him when he gets home after a long day. I know he would do the same for me.
This skillet is one of his favorite meals. I swear he would stand at the stove and eat it right from the pan if I would let him.
I love these easy skillet meals so that I can serve him a hot meal and then not have that much clean up when he is done eating. The man loves a good skillet meal.
I literally have to wrestle him away from the Philly Cheesesteak Pasta when I make it!
The One Ingredient Always In My Fridge
The ingredients you will see on the recipe card at the end of this post are pretty straightforward. We do happen to like to have a little spice in our lives so I often use this Cento Hoagie Spread in a lot of my recipes or as a topping.
I find it everywhere, even at Walmart. Amazon also has it. I use this on my sandwiches and especially my Open Faced Ham Sandwiches.
It is spicy, but your mouth will not be on fire. Also this is not sponsored, it is just a product I love and use often.
Simple Ingredients
When I worked outside the house, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was have to slice and dice a bunch of vegetables in order to make dinner. This dish requires you literally to hack up an onion and some peppers.
This does not require fancy knife skills. The peppers and onions will cook down in the simmering process so it does not matter at all how they look.
The Slotted Spoon Method
You will see in the steps in the recipe card below that I use a slotted spoon to add the pasta to the skillet. This is to reserve the pasta water for the dish in case it needs to be thinned out.
You really should have enough liquid for this dish without having to use it, but now you have the pasta water on hand in case you need to thin it out. The starch in the water from the pasta will help it from being too thin if it needs to be added.
Skillet Italian Sausage and Penne Recipe
A quick and easy meal that's absolutely bursting with delicious Italian flavors.
Ingredients
- 1 lb of Italian Sausage Links (6 links)
- 1 box of penne pasta (16 ounces, uncooked)
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon
- 2 green bell peppers, chopped
- 1 medium to large yellow onion, chopped
- 3 tablespoons of butter
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of dried oregano** to taste
- black pepper to taste
- garlic salt to taste
- spicy pickled pepper spread or giardiniera (optional)
- **options pictured in post
- Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- In a skillet add the butter and olive oil, melt the butter and add your chopped green peppers and the chopped onions. Sauté about 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Season well with the oregano, black pepper and garlic salt. I also add a tablespoon of this cherry pepper spread. This is optional. There is a picture of this in the post.
- Add your sausage links to the skillet with the peppers and onions and allow them to get golden brown on all sides by turning them occasionally.
- When the sausages are seared on all sides, add your water and the chicken bouillon. Bring this whole mixture to a simmer, turn the heat down to low and cover with a lid. Let this simmer while you cook your penne pasta according to the package directions.
- When the penne is cooked to al dente and your sausage has cooked down, add the pasta to the skillet with the sausage and peppers using a slotted spoon so that you reserve the pasta water in case it is needed.
- Add all of the pasta to the skillet and let this all simmer together, stirring occasionally until half the liquid is absorbed into the pasta. If your skillet is too dry, you can add some of the pasta water a little at a time.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed.
- You can remove the sausage links and slice them up and add them back to the pasta or you can serve them whole.
- Top the dishes with fresh Parmesan cheese and more spicy peppers if needed or dried chili flakes.
- This dish reheats really well also.