An almost completely hands-off 30 minute meal with roasted sausage and broccoli pasta. Add some roasted mushrooms and a squeeze of lemon for a flavourful and complete dinner!
This Sausage and Broccoli Pasta is a bit of a twist on the classic Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli. My version uses the oven to roast the sausage and broccoli and I’ve added some mushrooms for some extra heartiness to the meal.
I make this when we need a reliable pasta dish to fill up on after a long day of activities.
Substitutions / Variations for this Sausage and Broccoli Pasta:
- Sausage: basically anything with big flavour will work here. I used an Italian Sausage, but have also used Basil and Garlic Sausage, and Fennel Sausage to great success with my family.
- Mushrooms: they’re polarizing with humans (small and big alike!), double down, skip or use as described. You could cut the sausage in half and use more mushrooms too.
- Lemon Juice: keep it. There’s no sauce to this recipe so the lemon juice and the pasta water prevent the pasta from drying out.
- Broccoli: cauliflower would also work in my opinion, but we love both veggies so I’d use what you have and what you prefer (aka, whatever is gonna work with the kids!)
Why make this Roasted Sausage and Broccoli Pasta? Because the oven does the majority of the heavy lifting and the entire meal comes together in less than 30 minutes.
Plus, it’s frigging tasty! My kids always dive into easy pasta dish with gusto.
We love the caramelized florets the broccoli becomes from a toss in oil and then cooked at a high heat.
The roasted broccoli is a great contrast with the chewy pasta, creating a perfect balance of texture.
Looking for more easy pasta recipes:
- Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
- Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta
- Tomato and Anchovy Pasta
- One Pot Broccoli and 3 Cheese Pasta
An almost completely hands-off meal with roasted sausage and broccoli pasta. Add some roasted mushrooms and a squeeze of lemon for a bright and complete dinner!
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups sliced button mushrooms approx. 2 cups
- 1 lbs Italian Sausage, sliced 1/2" thick
- 2 medium broccoli crowns, roughly cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 lbs short pasta such as penne or rigatoni
- 1/2 medium lemon, juiced
- 2 pinches kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
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Preheat oven to 450° F and line a baking sheet with non-stick paper (for easy clean up).
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In a large bowl toss sliced mushrooms with 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 garlic cloves. Place on baking sheet with sliced sausages and bake for 10 minutes.
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In the same bowl, add remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil and remaining 1 garlic clove*. Add broccoli on top and set aside.
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Meanwhile, cook pasta as per package instructions in salted water** until al dente (the lower end of the time stated on the package). Save 1/4 cup pasta cooking water before draining and set aside with drained pasta.
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Toss broccoli with garlic oil in the large bowl. After the 10 minutes in oven, add broccoli to the mushrooms and sausage. Mix to flip mushrooms and sausages. Cook for 15-20 minutes more or until sausage is cooked through (pork sausage should be cooked to 160°F) and vegetables are golden brown.
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Toss sausage and vegetables with noodles, pasta water, and lemon juice. Taste and season with additional salt and/or pepper if desired.
* This gives the garlic time to infuse the oil which then gives the broccoli a mellow garlic flavour.
** This recipe calls for very little salt so if the pasta is cooked in unsalted water you may need more salt to season this pasta dish.
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