Italian Sausage Spaghetti – 30-Minute Meal

This Italian Sausage Spaghetti features marinara sauce, fresh tomatoes, spinach, garlic, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and fresh herbs! There is so much flavor packed into this crowd-pleasing pasta dish! The whole recipe takes only 30 minutes and requires simple ingredients found in most pantries.

CourseMain Course

CuisineItalian

KeywordItalian Sausage Spaghetti, spaghetti sauce

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Servings people

Calories774kcal

Table of Contents

Ingredients

Pasta

12 oz spaghetti

Spaghetti sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
15 oz Italian sausage mild, crumbled
4 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs from Provence
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes to taste
13 oz marinara sauce or tomato sauce
6 oz spinach fresh
4 tomatoes medium size, chopped
salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
fresh thyme

Instructions

Cook pasta

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions. While the pasta cooks, proceed with the recipe below.

How to make spaghetti sauce

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed, high-sided skillet.
Add crumbled sausage and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the sausage is cooked. Drain excess fat.
To the same skillet with sausage, add minced garlic, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, marinara sauce (or tomato sauce), and fresh spinach. Bring to a boil on medium heat and stir everything well. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, for 4 or 5 minutes until the spinach wilts to your liking.
Add chopped fresh tomatoes, and cook for about 2 more minutes.

Assembly

Add cooked and drained pasta to the sauce. Reheat.
Mix everything well. Remove from heat.
Season with salt, freshly ground coarse black pepper, and red pepper flakes, if you like. Top with fresh herbs, such as thyme.
Tip: use your best judgment about the salt. If the sausage is salty enough, you might not need to add any extra salt.

Notes

Tomato sauce. It can be a store-bought tomato pasta sauce or marinara sauce. Any flavor will work: traditional, tomato basil, arrabbiata, or garlic tomato sauce.
Sausage. I used mild Italian sausage. Italian sausage links can be used, too, with casings removed and sausage links sliced. You can also use sweet or spicy Italian sausage.
Italian seasoning of Herbs from Provence. The mix that I used contained dried rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, and sage.

Nutrition