Chicken Sausage Pasta
on Aug 24, 2018, Updated Aug 25, 2023
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This flavorful 5-ingredient pasta features chicken sausage (or the sausage of your choice), plus nutritious kale.
Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Kale
This is a hearty 5-ingredient pasta, but a bit less heavy than you might expect as chicken sausage is used instead of the more typical pork sausage. I found that getting my kids to eat kale became a whole lot easier when I paired it up with sausage—funny how life works that way.
This is a good spring pasta, kind of transitional between the heartier dishes of the past months and the lighter food that is pulling us around the corner into summer.
Chicken Sausage Pasta
There are so many types of chicken sausage available (and turkey), and it’s fun to experiment with different varieties in this pasta (…it’s also a bit of a cheat—sausage counts as one ingredient, of course, but there are all sorts of great seasonings in the sausage, anything from herbs and spices to things like feta cheese and sundried tomatoes. Change up the sausage, and change up the dish). Oh yeah – also the pasta, oil, salt and pepper don’t count.
Campanelle with Chicken Sausage, Kale and Olives: A hearty 5-ingredient pasta, with a less heavy chicken sausage instead of the more typical pork.
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Kale in Pasta
And of course there are lots of varieties of kale available, especially once those farmers’ markets get into full swing. I love the lacinato variety—the bumpy dinosaur-like leaves are very easy to handle as well. But the curlier types work just as well.
When kale is in season, it is often super cheap, so this is a good recipe to think of when you come home from the market with an Overambitious Kale Haul (which might be my stripper name). Just make sure to cut out and toss those tough middle stems—or make stock with them, speaking over overambitious.
Chicken Sausage Pasta Recipe: This flavorful 5-ingredient pasta features chicken sausage (or the sausage of your choice), plus nutritious kale.
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If there are people in your posse who are olive averse, pass them on the side and let those who like them add them in. Also, breaking the five ingredient rule again—Parmesan and red pepper flakes are great at the end.
Easy Weeknight Pasta Recipes:
Like the idea of 5-minute pastas? There’s more!
- Pasta with Fennel, Bacon and Parmesan
- Pasta with Creamy Sundried Tomato and Scallion Sauce
- Greek Pasta
- Chicken Marsala Pasta
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Chicken Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 pound campenelle or other chunky short pasta
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large shallots thinly sliced
- 1 pounds chicken sausage spicy or sweet or a combination, removed from its casing
- 4 cups chopped kale leaves
- ⅓ cup chopped black olives
- 1 cup chicken broth
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Salt the water generously, and let it return to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook accordingly to package directions, stirring occasionally.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and sauté for 2 minutes until they start to soften. Add the sausage and sauté, breaking up the sausage with a spoon as it cooks, until it is browned and crumbly, about 5 minutes. Add the kale and cook, stirring occasionally until the kale wilts, about 5 minutes more. Add the olives, chicken broth, season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer.
- Drain the cooked pasta and return it to the pot. Add the sausage and kale mixture to the pot and stir to combine. Serve hot.
This looks delicious and is very similar to pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage. The pasta featured in the photo is not campanelle, it is gemelli. ;-)