Not to sound like a broken record or anything buuuut I have another easy dinner for you. Meet this One-Pan creamy orecchiette pasta!
Imagine cooking your entire pasta dish in one pan. I’m talking chicken sausages, spinach and peas swimming with cute little orecchiette pasta in a creamy sauce. Again, all of this is done in one pan.
I kid you not.
Orecchiette is one of my all time favorite pasta shapes. It holds sauce like perfect little cups and it’s shape makes peas look like pearls. Oh and then there was that one time my then seven-year-old, Malloree showed me this “worker guy” and I just about died.
Got 30 minutes?? Make this super simple and delicious one-pan meal! Scroll down and watch the magic happen.
To Make This Creamy Orecchiette Pasta You Will Need:
- chicken sausages
- shallot
- garlic
- low-sodium chicken broth
- baby spinach
- peas
- parmesan cheese
- heavy cream
What makes this dish so easy and fast (besides everything being done in one pan) is that the chicken sausages are pre-cooked. Just slice, brown in some oil for a few minutes and that’s it.
First, slice the chicken sausages about 1/4 of an inch thick and on an angle.
Meanwhile, heat a deep 10-inch skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil and once hot, add in the sausage slices. It shouldn’t take too long to crisp and golden those edges.
Then transfer the crispy sausages to a bowl and set off to the side.
Next, while the sausages were in the pan, I quickly (and very thinly) sliced up a large-ish shallot and minced up a 3 medium cloves of garlic.
Then add those to the pan and cook until just starting to soften, about 1-2 minutes.
Next, add in 2 heaping cups of orecchiette pasta and pour in 4 cups (1 quart) low sodium chicken broth.
Then cover, increase the heat under the pan to high and bring to a boil.
Once the broth is boiling, I remove the lid, stir the pasta and then decrease the heat to somewhere between medium and medium-high. Cook the pasta until al dente, should be around 10-12 minutes (depending on your pasta) but I check it around 8 minutes. And by check it, I mean taste test it <—– favorite part.
By now the pasta is cooked. However there should still be some broth in the pan.
Next, turn down the heat to low and add in a couple generous handfuls of baby spinach along with 1 cup of peas and also half of the Parmesan cheese.
Next, give everything a stir and once the spinach has wilted, add a few splashes of heavy cream.
Lastly, add the sausage back in to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper, stir and serve!
Creamy, dreamy and SOOOOO amazingly simple! Serve family-style with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.
And I’m pretty sure I will forever try to avoid separately cooking my pasta. One less pot = one happy lady!
All it needs is an extra sprinkle of Parm and it’s ready to be shoveled into your mouth.
Enjoy! And if you give this Creamy Orecchiette Pasta recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
One-Pan Creamy Orecchiette Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 12 ounces Italian Chicken Sausages
- 1 large shallot, halved and sliced thin
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups orecchiette pasta
- 1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 large handfuls baby spinach
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- kosher salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- fresh basil, for serving
Instructions
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, deep sided, 10-inch skillet over medium heat.
- Add in the sliced sausages and cook until the edges are golden brown. Transfer to a bowl and set off to the side.
- To the pan, add the shallot and garlic, stir and cook until just softened, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add in the pasta and all of the broth. Scrape up any brown pieces on the bottom of the pan before covering and increasing the heat to high and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, uncover and reduce the heat to medium-medium high. Cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the pasta is al dente and the broth has reduced but is not fully absorbed (this makes the sauce).
- Reduce heat to low, add in the spinach, peas and Parmesan. Stir until the the spinach has wilted. Add in a few splashes of heavy cream before adding the sausages back in and seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.
- Stir and serve into bowls with extra Parmesan cheese over top.
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Yeah for one pot meals! Orecchiette is my favorite paste too! Yum!
It’s funny how each pea found its way to an orechietta! Will try this for sure.
I love one pan dishes! This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it!
This is delicious!!! I just made it this afternoon and wouldn’t change a thing!
I just made this and I thought it tasted pretty good. It’s a simple pasta dish considering that most of the taste comes from the chicken broth. It wasn’t anything too fancy with lots of dimensions in taste but if you want something that is simple and tastes good then I’d say that this is your dish. I do want to note though that I didn’t have the exact same ingredients as stated in the recipe. When shopping for ingredients my store didn’t have Orecchiette pasta so I just bought large shell pasta and it required the same amount of cook time as stated in the recipe. I also didn’t have chicken and turkey sausage, just turkey sausage so I cooked that up the same way as stated in the recipe. I noticed the turkey sausage I bought had a salty taste to it so that when added to the pasta at the end the pasta was a little bit on the salty side in terms of taste but that was easily corrected using some sugar. Overall it was a good dish and it definitely fits the description of a creamy pasta. If you want a pasta that is simple and creamy then I definitely recommend this for you.
I’m glad you approve, Kelly! Thank you for leaving a review! 🙂