How To Make A Creamy Sausage And Fennel Pasta Recipe

A crave-worthy creamy and delicious pasta with sausage and fennel. Serve with garlic bread and you'll have a hearty meal the whole family will enjoy.

Our creamy sausage and fennel pasta is just a pasta lovers dream! Get the family cosied up around the dinner table and tuck in!

This Italian style pasta dish is incredibly tasty, and super easy to whip up too! A seriously satisfying meal, you can easily make on even a busy weeknight!

Why You'll Love This Creamy Sausage And Fennel Pasta Recipe

Super tasty! this is absolutely one of those pasta recipes you're going to want to make again and again! It's so tasty, creamy and delicious.

Only uses simple ingredients - we only use easy to source ingredients, that you could literally pick up from a little mini-supermarket on the way home from work. But you'll probably have most of them in at home already.

What is Fennel & What Does it Taste Like?

Fennel is a really versatile vegetable, an often turns up in veg-boxes. It almost looks like a cross between celery and an onion.

You can eat it raw in salads, use the little delicate fennel fronds as a herb to flavour pasta, salads, rice dishes or as a garnish.

It has a mild aniseed flavour, not overpoweringly so and it works so well in Italian recipes.

What Type of Pasta & Sausage Should You Use?

For creamy pasta dishes we like to use shell shaped pastas so conchiglie or orechiette work well. This shape tends to catch and cup the creamy sauce and adds to the deliciousness! It's also nice made with rigatoni.

And when it comes to choosing sausages, pick a flavourful one, one with maybe added chorizo, Italian style herbs or roasted red onions. Just so they add more flavour to the finished dish.

Sausage And Fennel Pasta Recipe

Serves – 4 

Prep Time – 10 minutes 

Cook Time – approx 30 minutes

Total Time – 40 minutes 

Our Most Popular Alternative – Creamy Chicken And Chorizo Pasta

Equipment Needed

• Chopping board

• Vegetable knife

• Saucepan for the pasta

• Colander

• Large skillet pan with lid - we usually use a dutch oven style pan

• Cooking spoon - we use a wooden spoon

• Tablespoon

• Teaspoon

• Measuring jug

Ingredients For Creamy Sausage And Fennel Pasta

Everything you'll need to make this delicious, cosy sausage and fennel pasta recipe

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 onion - finely diced

• 1 clove garlic - finely diced

• 1 bulb fennel - finely chopped

• 6 pork and chorizo sausages

• 400g passata

• 200ml double cream (heavy cream)

• 2 teaspoon spicy italian seasoning

• 350g dried pasta

How To Make Creamy Sausage And Fennel Pasta

Step-by-step instructions for making our cosy warming pasta recipe

Instructions

Step One - sauté the onions, garlic and fennel

• Add a splash of olive oil over a medium heat. Tip in the onions, garlic and fennel and gently fry (stirring often) for around 5 minutes.

Step Two - remove the sausage skins

• Meanwhile split the sausage skin using a sharp knife and flip the sausage meat out the skin.

• Break it up into bite sized pieces.

Step Three - brown the sausage pieces

• Put the sausage bits into the pan with the frying vegetables. and cook for around 5-6 minutes to colour them up a little so they start to brown on the outsides.

Step Five - add the rest of the sausage and fennel pasta sauce ingredients

• Then tip in the passata, salt and pepper and add the Italian seasoning. Bring the pasta sauce to the boil and then cook with the lid on for around 25 minutes (or until the sausage are cooked through properly and the vegetables softened)

Step Six - cook the pasta

• 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, put the pasta on to cook in a large pot of water with a pinch of salt as per the packet instructions.

Step Seven - whilst the pasta cooks, add the cream to the sausage and fennel pasta sauce

• Once the pasta sauce is cooked through, stir in the cream and let it simmer and warm through for 3-4 minutes.

Step Eight - drain the pasta and add to the pasta sauce

• Meanwhile, reserve a cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta, toss the pasta into the pan with the sausage and fennel sauce and mix everything together. Use the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.

Step Nine - serve the sausage and fennel pasta

• Scatter the pasta with any chopped herbs and grated Parmesan cheese if you have to hand, then serve straight way.

Make Our Creamy Sausage Pasta Your Way - Variations And Ingredient Swaps 

Make spicy sausage pasta

Add in some freshly chopped chillies or a pinch of red pepper flakes to give the dish a kick of heat. You can also add in some toasted fennel seeds too.

Use different sausages

You can make this pasta dish with any sausages you like - pork, chicken, Italian sausage, beef or vegetarian.

Make it gluten-free

This is an easy dish to swap to gluten free - just be sure to use gluten free sausages and check that all other ingredients and the pasta to serve are labelled gluten-free too.

Use different vegetables

You can add in any vegetables you like - try aubergine, courgettes, red peppers or mushrooms.

Get All Our Pasta Recipes Here

What To Serve With Sausage Pasta 

• Garlic Bread
• Rocket Salad
• Tomato And Cucumber Salad
• Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables
• Homemade focaccia

Try All Our Sausage Recipes Here

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More Easy Sausage Recipes To Try

• 5 meals with air fryer sausages
• Homemade sausage rolls
• Sausage hotpot

... watch the sausage and fennel pasta story here