One Pot Sundried Tomato Spaghetti with Sausage

This one-pot spaghetti recipe takes your basic pasta and sauce to a new flavor level in just one pot. The sausage, the sauce, and the pasta cook together for a hearty and comforting dinner with minimal cleanup.

If spaghetti night is your jam as it is mine, this sundried tomato spaghetti recipe needs to go on your must-try list. It’s hearty and comforting, loaded with flavor, and (magically!) cooks in one pot for the easiest cleanup ever. In other words, spaghetti night is about to get a serious glow-up.

How to Make It

We’re making a shortcut sausage meat sauce dressed up with sundried tomatoes. They add a touch of brightness that cuts through the sausage’s richness.

It’s a one-pot wonder meaning the sausage, sauce, and pasta all cook together. The only catch: the pasta does take longer to cook in the sauce than it would if you boiled it in a separate pot on its own.

However, while going the one-pan route does add an extra ten minutes to the cooking time, there is one less pot to deal with, and the pasta absorbs all of the flavors from the sauce and sausage. Also, if you count the time it takes to actually bring a large pot of water to a boil, doing the two-pot method really doesn’t make it any faster.

Add in some fresh herbs and serve it with a generous grating of Parmesan cheese, and you get all the comforting goodness only spaghetti night can deliver.

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One Pot Sundried Tomato Spaghetti with Sausage

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This one-pot spaghetti recipe takes your basic pasta and sauce to a new flavor level in just one pot. The sausage, the sauce, and the pasta cook together for a hearty and comforting dinner with minimal cleanup.

• Author: April Anderson
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: One Pot
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 12  ounces Italian sausage links (about 3 to 4 links), casing removed
• ½ cup chopped yellow onion
• 4 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• ½ cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 4 ounces)
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 ¼ cup jarred marinara sauce
• 3 ½ cups water
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 ounces spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• Grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Instructions

1. In a large pan (see note), heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook it, breaking it apart with a spatula, until it’s no longer pink. Add the onion, garlic, tomatoes, and red pepper flakes and cook them with the meat for two to three minutes.
2. Add the marinara sauce, water, and salt and stir to combine. Bring the pan to a boil and add the spaghetti. The spaghetti should just be covered by the sauce. Adjust the heat to maintain a strong simmer and cook the pasta in the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Adjust the heat, as needed, to maintain a strong simmer.
3. Add the herbs and stir. Top each serving with grated parmesan cheese if using.

Notes

You will need a large pan for this recipe. The one I use is about 11.5″ wide and 2.5″ deep, which is plenty big enough to hold the uncooked spaghetti and all of the sauce. If you’re worried about the size of your pan, consider just breaking the spaghetti in half.  No shame, I say, so if your pan is not quite big enough, don’t overthink it; call  it “one pot broken spaghetti.”

Cooking tip: When you add the spaghetti, it should be covered by the sauce. It will be hard to stir until it starts to soften. So, at the beginning, just keep pressing it down into the sauce – after a couple of minutes, you will be able to stir it easily.

Be sure to stir frequently. If you don’t, the pasta will stick to the bottom of the pan. Also, the sauce doesn’t need to fully boil while the pasta cooks, so adjust the heat as needed (up or down) to maintain a strong simmer. This means the sauce will be bubbly but not at a rolling boil.

Two-pot method: If you want to cook the pasta separately, omit the added water in the sauce and increase the amount of marinara by a cup or so. While the pasta boils, make the sauce in a separate pan, and then add the cooked pasta.

See the blog post for some substitutions and a few other tips!

Nutrition

• Calories: 436
• Sugar: 6.4g
• Sodium: 1044.6mg
• Fat: 13.6g
• Saturated Fat: 3.7g
• Unsaturated Fat: 8.3g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 55.7g
• Fiber: 4.5g
• Protein: 23.1g
• Cholesterol: 26.9mg

The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.

Substitutions

• Pasta: I’ve only tested this recipe with spaghetti, but another pasta shape that cooks in about the same amount of time should work fine. Spaghetti usually takes about 8 to 10 minutes when you boil it.
• Sausage: I like to use Italian sausage because it releases some fat that enriches the sauce and makes the dish extra rich. If you want it less rich, drain off some of the fat after you cook the sausage. Or, use the same amount of lean ground beef or ground turkey. If you do this swap, I recommend adding a couple of teaspoons of Italian seasoning.
• Herbs: Fresh basil works great in this recipe, too!

Recipe Tips

When you first add the pasta, the sauce will be very watery, but don’t worry! As the pasta cooks, it will absorb the water and release starch, thickening the sauce.

Taste the pasta a few times while it cooks. I usually check it after about 10 minutes and then again just before the 20-minute mark. The pasta should be tender but not mushy when it’s done.

If you have leftovers, they will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

I hope you give this sundried tomato pasta a try soon!

Happy cooking,

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