This creamy sausage rigatoni is the easy to make comfort food you need in your life.

Creamy Sausage Rigatoni

From the recipe collection of Tara Ippolito

There’s nothing that a big warm bowl of creamy sausage rigatoni can’t fix. It’s the ultimate comfort food. It’s meaty, cheesy and loaded with carbs.

And let’s face it, we could all use something like this in our lives every once and a while.

I like to schedule my “once and a while” carb fest on Sundays. We always had pasta once a week in my house growing up. Sunday was the perfect day for it.

Everyone was home and we’d eat dinner early. Big meals like this creamy sausage rigatoni I like to eat around 4. I’m not exactly sure why but eating pasta early on a Sunday just makes so much sense.

It’s a tradition I’ve kept in my house with my own family now.

This creamy sausage rigatoni is very easy to make too!

This is a one and done meal. Meaning you don’t really need to serve sides with it. A salad and sliced Italian bread would be great additions if you’re looking for a little something extra but that’s really it.

other pasta recipes you’ll love:

• Tik Toks viral Alfredo Sauce
• creamy sausage rigatoni
• the best vodka sauce
• easy cheeseburger casserole

Do I Have To Use Rigatoni?

No, you don’t have to necessarily use rigatoni in this recipe. I would nightly recommend you use a tube like pasta instead of something flat like spaghetti though.

This sauce is chunky and isn’t really great for a flat noodle. Everything will kinda slid off and not really pick up and hold all the ingredients well.

Any pasta that’s shaped like a tube or has ridges to soak up and hold all that sauce is a good choice. So what can you use? Here are some ideas.

• Penne
• Ziti
• Cavatappi
• Fussili
• Rotini

Why the pasta water?

You’re going to see pasta water and an ingredient in this recipe. People who have never cooked with that before often ask me why it’s necessary to add it. Or they’re confused on what pasta water even is.

Well, pasta water is literally the water that you’re pasta is boiling in. Before you drain the water, reserve a ladle of the water to add to the sauce. The salty, starchy water is like pasta gold and here’s why:

• The salty water adds another flavor level to the sauce.
• The starch thickens the sauce and also helps it adhere to the pasta.

This little tip of adding pasta water works on almost every sauce. So next time you’ve got some in the stove give it a try.

How can I spice this up?

If you’d like to add a little spice to this creamy sausage rigatoni that’s a super easy thing to do.

• First, try swapping the sweet Italian Sausage out for spicy Italian Sausage. That’s a great way to add a good amount of heat.
• Second, add some hot pepper flakes to the onion when your sautéing it. The heat will infuse into the oil and create a really nice spicy flavor throughout the whole sauce. Exactly how much hot pepper flakes is entirely up to you. But a good place to start would be with about 1/2 Tsp and take it from there.
• The above two can be combined or done separately. Just keep in mind it’s easy to add heat if you’d like some more but a little tougher to remove it.

Creamy sausage rigatoni recipe video:

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• onion
• Sausage
• Garlic
• Diced tomatoes
• Tomato sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• Italian Seasoning
• Garlic powder
• Rigatoni
• Pasta water
• optional: parsley/ basil & parmesan cheese for garnish

Instructions:

1. Sauté the onion in olive oil just until it’s soft.

2. Take the sausage out of the casing.

3. Add the sausage to the onions and start browning it.

4. Using your wooden spoon/ spatula break the sausage up into small pieces as it browns.

5. If there is a lot of accumulated fat/ oil you can drain it out.

6. Once the sausage is browned, add the garlic and cook that together for a couple of minutes.

7. Now add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

8. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.

9. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes.

10. Next add the heavy cream.

11. Stir the sauce to incorporate the cream and let that simmer for about 20 minutes.

12. Add the pasta water and pasta to the sauce.

13. Gently toss the rigatoni into the sauce until it’s evenly coated.

14. Plate the creamy sausage rigatoni and garnish it with shredded fresh parsley/ basil and parmesan cheese. Serve warm and enjoy!

Try my Creamy Tomato Ravioli Sauce next!

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