Print

One Pot Sundried Tomato Spaghetti with Sausage

Spaghetti Bolognese in a pan
Print Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 4 reviews

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.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 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

Find it online: https://www.girlgonegourmet.com/spaghetti-bolognese/