Quick-Dinner Crowd-Pleaser: Sausage-Alfredo Shells

This creamy sausage pasta is the number one quick-dinner crowd-pleaser at our house. The whole thing comes together in less than 30 minutes (I’ve made it in under 20). Anyone who comes to the table hangry leaves with a happy belly. It tastes wayyyy better than any takeout pasta you’re getting from an “Italian-American” restaurant. So, the next time you’re in a pinch for dinner you just need pasta shells, sausage, cream, Parmesan and a few pantry staples. Serve it with a side of broccoli for picky eaters or, even better, leftover kale salad.

Notes

Note about pasta variety

Pasta size/shape should match or compliment the ingredients in the sauce. For this sauce that means medium shells because the sausage will often get inside the shells making for unstoppably perfect bites. That said, use whatever pasta you have on hand and don’t make a trip to the store for shells.

Note about browning and crumbling sausage

If you’re using sausage in casing, I have found that the best way to get the best texture and flavor, is to cut the casing, remove the sausage, and fry it in roughly 3 inch “chunks” for browning. Then remove the sausage from the pan while the middle is not cooked through. After the sausage has cooled a bit, crumble it down into bite size pieces before returning it to the pan to finish cooking in the sauce. This way you get good browning but the sausage doesn’t dry out the way it does if you fully crumble the sausage before browning it.

Note about Italian sausage

Italian sausage with fennel is best. If you live Michigan, the sausage is strangely fennel deficient. If you live in Michigan and make sausage, my friend Gregg would like you to add fennel to your sausage, please. If you’re simply a sausage eater in the state of Michigan, please plan on adding extra fennel.

You can use any kind of Italian sausage, but if you’re using vegan or chicken sausage, you may need to add a bit of butter to the sauce to mimic the fat content of pork sausage.

Key Ingredients

Sausage-Alfredo Shells – Recipe

Total cook time about 20 minutes. Serves 5

Ingredients

• salt for pasta water
• 1 pound medium shells or similarly sized pasta
• 1-2 teaspoons neutral oil
• 1.25 lbs Italian sausage casing removed (doesn’t need to be exact)
• ¼ teaspoons coarsely crushed fennel seeds (optional)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
• ½ cup chicken stock (or ¼ cup dry white wine)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ cup milk (any percentage)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (or a mix of Parmesan and Pecorino-Romano)
• 3 ounces baby spinach (optional)
• Extra Parmesan and fresh chopped parsley to finish

Step One

Set large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Once boiling, cook pasta to just under al dente, reserve about 2 cups of pasta water and drain the pasta. Set aside. If you’re a multi-tasker, you can cook the pasta while you make the sauce.

Step Two

Combine milk, egg yolk and cream in a small bowl and whisk with a fork to combine. Set cream mixture aside. Heat your largest saucepan on medium high heat (mine is 13”). Add 1-2 teaspoons neutral oil, and then brown your sausage, about 2-3 minutes per side. You don’t need to cook the sausage through here, just make sure to brown it.

Step Three

Turn temperature down to low. Remove sausage and oil into a bowl leaving 1-2 tablespoons of fat behind. If using, fry the crushed fennel seeds for about 30 seconds. Then add your garlic and, if using, a few red pepper flakes cook gently for 30-60 seconds. Next, add chicken stock or white wine to deglaze the pan scraping brown bits up from the bottom. Cook for about a minute. then add the cream, egg mixture and bring heat under the pan up to medium-low occasionally stirring sauce until it is just at a simmer.

Step Four

When the sauce is close to a simmer, add the sausage and any fat that may have collected back into the pan. Simmer sauce until sausage is cooked through.

Step Five

Once sausage is cooked through, add pasta, and about ¾ cup of reserved pasta water. Toss the pasta until covered in sauce. Then add spinach and toss until wilted, and then add Parmesan and stir until incorporated. Add splashes of extra pasta water as needed to create a creamy sauce that coats the shells.

Sprinkle parsley and extra Parmesan over top and serve immediately. Reheats well in the microwave.