Sausage and pepper pasta made with Italian sausages is the perfect easy weeknight pasta and cheesy comfort food. This recipe was originally published on February 25, 2018 and updated on April 26, 2020.
In recent years, as life has become busier, I’ve been more focused on sharing easy weeknight dinners. Always asking myself the question if the recipe fits my mission–‘is this simple, fresh and flavourful?’.
This sausage and pepper pasta, which you cover with cheese and bake in the oven until it’s bubbling and brown, and then serve with fresh basil is one of my favourite comfort foods. And it’s ready in under 45 minutes, which means it can work for a simple weeknight meal.
To make things easier, I’ve created a weeknight dinner category on my site to help you find these weeknight-worthy recipes.
In the winter, I probably make this pasta dish once a month. Depending on the day, I’ll use either my 20-minute homemade marinara sauce or a good quality store-bought sauce; it’s ok to take shortcuts when you need to.
I’ve always loved the combination of sweet bell peppers and hot Italian sausage. It’s that sweet/spicy combination that makes a perfect pasta dish. The same reason I love my recipe for pasta with cherry tomatoes.
The best way to freeze sausages
A quick tip for freezing sausage; I like to buy sausage in bulk, so I always have some on hand for quick dinners. To freeze them, wrap 2-4 sausages in aluminum foil and store them in a large freezer bag.
This way, instead of thawing the entire package, you can thaw the perfect amount for each recipe that you’re cooking.
I use rigatoni pasta–which is the obviously the best pasta shape–but you could also use penne or any kind of tubular or shell pasta. I find this style of pasta is the best for a cheesy and saucy baked pasta recipes.
Sausage and Pepper Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 hot Italian sausages, thinly sliced
- 2 red bell peppers, sliced
- ½ tsp hot chili flakes
- 2 ¾ cup or 680-ml can marinara sauce
- 454 g pkg. rigatoni pasta
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup thinly sliced basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Cook pasta 1-2 minutes less than indicated.
- Heat a large, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, cook sausage for 5 minutes, flipping halfway through, remove from pan and set aside. Add bell peppers, cook another 5 minutes. Add sausage, marinara sauce and chill flakes. Toss cooked pasta with sauce. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh basil, serve.
Let me know if you give this recipe for Italian sausage and pepper baked pasta a try in the comments below.
Graeme 
Louisa Clements 
Lance D Kuznitz 
Shirley Clements 
anupreetkaur 
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