This quick and easy Orecchiette with Sausage and Mushrooms will become your favorite weeknight dinner. The smell of cooking garlic, spicy sausage, and white wine simmering will fill your kitchen with delicious aromas.
Orecchiette with Sausage and Mushrooms
We have been on both a pasta kick and a chicken sausage kick in our house. Both are so easy to incorporate into quick and easy meals that get to the table fast. For this dish, I combined orecchiette pasta (my latest favorite pasta shape) with sausage and mushrooms, wilted spinach, and a simple creamy wine sauce that smells amazing while it’s simmering away. There isn’t a ton of sauce, so the pasta still feels on the light side. If you don’t want to use wine, just sub in chicken broth instead.
Ingredients: Orecchiette, Chicken Sausage, Bella Mushrooms, Wine
We like these Whole Foods organic chicken sausages. Clearly we like a lot of things from Whole Foods 🙂
I used a Scout + Cellar Sauv Blanc for my wine because it was what I planned to drink anyways. Every time I cook with wine I smile to myself: “I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I put it in the food.” (Don’t worry, I only added a little!) For this particular dinner, Thomas had the kids settled downstairs and I had lovely time having the kitchen all to myself. That is not always the case 🙂
Mazen ate a deconstructed form of this meal. And Birch will still not eat pasta of any kind – even mac and cheese! We will keep trying. He is a fruit-e-tarian.
The Recipe
The recipe formula is simple: cook pasta, sautéed sausage and mushrooms, add some garlic, deglaze with wine, cook off alcohol, add cream and spinach, toss it all together, garnish with extras, like lemon zest and parmesan!
Orecchiette with Sausage and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 8 ounces orecchiette or other small shape pasta
- 8 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 4 chicken sausages sliced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- Salt + pepper to taste
- Grated parmesan and zested lemon for serving
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions. Drain.
- In a large sauté pan melt the butter of medium high heat and add the mushrooms and sausage. Cook for 5 minutes, until mushrooms are brown. Add garlic and stir, cooking for an additional minute or two.
- Add wine and add a touch of heat to cook off alcohol and reduce the wine, 3-5 minutes. Add half and half and greens and stir to mix and wilt. Cook for 2-3 minutes more, until sauce is thick. Mix in pasta and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with lemon zest and grated parmesan.
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
This looks really good, Kath! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Jill says
Love this recipe! Similar to one I’ve made with broccoli instead of mushrooms. It’ so good!
Louise RD says
I’m making this tonight- thanks!!
Sarah says
Tip – don’t drain all the pasta water! You can add some to the pasta to give it a little extra “sauce” if it becomes too dry and it has all the strachy goodness of pasta. I started doing this a year or so ago and it makes a huge difference to non-red sauce pasta dishes like this. Yum! Thanks, Kath!
Sj says
Ads made reading this hard. Text kept jumping every time an ad appeared.
Kath Younger says
Thanks, I’m actually switching ad networks soon and will work on a better strategy
cathy says
Apparently it is a myth that alcohol will “evaporate” or “cook out” of food and sauces. You should do your own research and be careful if your dinner is intended for your kids.
Nikki says
I actually did some Googling/fact checking after reading this as my first instinct was, “that can’t be right”. Sure enough, the research seems to say that even cooking for half an hour will still leave 35% of the alcohol content. As someone who isn’t serving food to kiddos I’m ok with it, but I appreciate that you mentioned it for those that are.