Creamy Sausage Pasta
This is one of those recipes we keep coming back to on weeknights when we want something that feels properly indulgent but comes together in 25 minutes. Creamy, smoky, a little spicy, with juicy plant-based sausage crumbled through a rich tomato sauce and roasted red peppers adding sweetness in every bite. The fennel seeds are the thing that really gets us, they give it that proper Italian sausage vibe that makes the whole dish sing. Finished with fresh basil and a good hit of parmesan, it tastes like something you'd order in a restaurant. Honestly, make this tonight.
Before You Start
- Microplane or grater for plant-based cheese
- Large frying pan
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 4 red peppers - jarred
- 6 plant-based sausages
- 1 x 400g can of tomatoes
- 300g pasta - we've gone for orrechiete
- 800ml boiling water
- 1 tsp salt
- 150ml plant-based double cream
- 50g plant-based cheese
- 15g fresh basil
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method
Prep the ingredients
- Peel and finely slice the garlic
- Drain and dice the peppers
- Grate the parmesan
- Pick the basil leaves
Make the pasta sauce
- Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat with the olive oil
- Add the garlic and fry until starting to turn golden, then add the fennel seeds, paprika and tomato paste, cooking for 1 minute
- Stir in the red peppers and crumble over the sausages, frying for a few minutes
- Add the diced tomatoes, pasta, water and salt
- Bring to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the pasta is cooked al dente and the sauce has thickened
Finish and serve
- Stir through the cream, cheese and basil leaves, then taste to season with salt and pepper
- Cover with a lid and leave to rest for 5 minutes to thicken
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and garnish with extra basil leaves to serve
Tips & Variations
- Get the spices right: Don't rush the step where you fry the fennel seeds, paprika and tomato paste. That one minute in the hot oil makes a huge difference to the depth of the final sauce, trust us on this one.
- Pasta water is your friend: Before you drain the pasta, scoop out a mug of the starchy cooking water. Adding a splash to the sauce helps it cling beautifully to every piece of pasta and keeps things creamy rather than thick and claggy.
- Swap the sausages: We love this with any good plant-based sausage, but Ian's tested it with crumbled smoked tofu and a pinch of extra paprika and it works brilliantly. Great if you've got tofu to use up.
Why This Works
The trick is frying off the garlic, fennel seeds, paprika and tomato paste together before anything else goes in. That one minute of cooking the spices in the oil is what builds the base flavour and makes the whole sauce taste deep and complex rather than just like tinned tomatoes. Crumbling the sausages straight into the pan rather than cooking them separately means they soak up all those smoky, spiced flavours as they fry.