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Easy Italian Sausage Spaghetti

Quick and easy spaghetti recipe with Italian sausage. The tomato-based sauce gets its seasoning from the sweet and spicy sausages. Our favorite way to make spaghetti!

Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

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Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Italian Sausage Spaghetti
Elise Bauer

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Everyone has their favorite way of making spaghetti sauce. Ours is incredibly easy and crazy good, especially considering how easy it is to make.

There's no special formula or hours of simmering. You just cook some chopped onions and garlic, brown some Italian sausage, and add some puréed canned tomatoes.

My parents and I have been making spaghetti this way for years. They first heard about it on a Martha Stewart show, where Martha had picked it up from a chef in New York City.

The beauty of this spaghetti recipe is that it is very easy to make and you don't have to add any seasoning to achieve wonderful flavor. The sauce gets all of its seasoning from two Italian sausages—one sweet, one spicy.

Italian Sausage Spaghetti
Elise Bauer

Easy Italian Sausage Spaghetti

Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 35 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Servings 3 to 4 servings
This spaghetti recipe is light on the sauce, which is more typical of how spaghetti is actually served in Italy. If you would like more sauce, you may want to thin it with water, or add more canned tomatoes to the sauce. Make the sauce and the spaghetti simultaneously. The sauce should be done in the time it takes to heat the pasta water and cook the spaghetti. Feel free to vary the amount of sausage for the sauce. We use anywhere from 1/2 pound to a full pound of Italian sausage, half sweet, half spicy.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 6 ounces (170 g) Italian sweet sausage (or one 7 to 8 inch link)
  • 6 ounces (170 g)  Italian hot and spicy sausage (or one 7 to 8 inch link)
  • 1 large (28 oz, 794 g) can of crushed tomatoes (or purĂ©e a can of whole peeled tomatoes)
  • 1 pound (16 oz, 450 g) spaghetti pasta
  • Salt
  • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method

  1. Sauté onions and garlic:

    Heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet on medium or medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more.

  2. Put pasta water on to boil:

    While the onions are cooking, put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta (4 quarts water, 2 Tbsp salt).

  3. Brown the sausage:

    Remove the cooked onion and garlic from the pan and set aside. Remove the sausage meat from the casings (if your sausage is in links) and add to the pan, breaking up the meat with your fingers as you add it to the pan. Cook on medium heat until just lightly browned.

  4. Add tomatoes, onions, garlic:

    Add crushed or puréed canned tomatoes with their juices to the skillet with the sausage meat. Add the cooked onions and garlic. Heat to a bare simmer.

  5. Boil the spaghetti pasta:

    Once the pasta water has come to a rolling boil, add the spaghetti pasta. Allow the water to return to a rolling boil. Cook, uncovered, with a vigorous boil, for as long as the directions on the pasta package say, usually about 10-12 minutes. When pasta is al dente (cooked but still a little firm), remove the pot from the heat. Drain the pasta and place it in a serving bowl.

    Serve immediately. Toss with the sauce and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese.

Italian Sausage Spaghetti
Elise Bauer