This quick and easy creamy roasted red pepper and chicken sausage pasta is full of awesome flavor and is perfect for busy weeknights.
This creamy roasted red pepper pasta dish falls under my category of quick and easy pasta recipes that I like to pull out of my back pocket on hectic weeknights. It’s right up there with my 5-ingredient cacio e pepe, spaghetti alla carbonara, and my pasta with pomodoro sauce. The recipe comes from my blogger friend Bev, of Bev Cooks, and is a riff on her skillet pasta with chicken sausages and creamy green pepper sauce. It’s precisely the kind of thing I crave for dinner most nights. Roasted red peppers are the star, and they get blended up with some heavy cream for an ultra-creamy, addictively good sauce (seriously, I could drink this stuff). Chicken sausage is pretty key here (you could use Italian sausage but I find it’s a bit too flavored for this dish). Kielbasa would work as well. I use Aidells Chicken and Apple Sausage. A kiss of cayenne pepper balances the flavor and rounds everything out with a subtle kick (though red pepper flakes would also work great).
In This Post
What’s in This Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Only a handful of ingredients are needed to make this easy, creamy roasted red pepper pasta. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Short pasta (I used radiatore, but penne or rigatoni also work great)
- Jarred roasted red peppers
- Heavy whipping cream (half and half also works)
- Chicken and apple sausages (you could also use Italian sausage or kielbasa)
- Cayenne pepper (or red pepper flakes)
- Kosher salt
- Fresh basil
- Parmesan cheese
How to Make This Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
This pasta is such a cinch to make, and it comes together pretty fast and with little effort. Here’s how to make it:
Cook the pasta. Cook pasta according to package instructions, until al dente, then drain.
Make the sauce. Cut the roasted red bell peppers into thin slices. Add to a medium-sized pot with the whipping cream and bring to a boil. Reduce to a bubbling simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until reduced by half.
Brown the sausage. Cook the sausages in a large pan with a circle or two of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from the pan, wipe it clean with a paper towel, and return the sausage to the pan to rest.
Blend the red peppers into the sauce. When the cream has reduced, remove ¼ of the peppers and set aside. Blend the remaining peppers and the cream with an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender or small food processor), and then pour into the pot with the sausages. Add the additional peppers and pasta and cook over medium heat for another 2-3 minutes or until everything is warmed through.
Top, and serve. Top with Parmesan and fresh basil and serve.
Tip: Bev doctors her recipe with a pop in the oven and melty mozzarella cheese and I kept mine simple, but if you want to try it her way (which would be super delish), transfer the pasta to an oven-safe skillet or baking dish, top it with sliced or shredded mozzarella, and place under the broiler for a few minutes until bubbly and golden brown.
Ingredient Swaps or Additions
- Swap basil for parsley
- Try kielbasa or another type of chicken sausage (or omit to make vegetarian)
- Add baby bella mushrooms
- Swap the Parmesan for ricotta
- Add spinach or kale
What to Serve with This Pasta to Make it a Meal
- The BEST Garlic Bread
- Caesar Salad with Garlic Croutons
- Kale Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts
- Arugula Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Chicken Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound short pasta , (such as radiatore, penne, or rigatoni)
- 2 16 ounce jars roasted red bell peppers , or 4 whole roasted red bell peppers
- 2 cups whipping cream
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 13 ounce package of chicken and apple sausages , about 5 sausages, sliced into coins. (I use Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage)
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper , (you could also use red pepper flakes)
- kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil , chiffonade cut
- Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Cook pasta in a large pot of water seasoned with kosher salt until al dente, about 7-8 minutes. Drain.
- While pasta is cooking, slice the roasted red bell peppers into thin slices. Add to a medium-sized pot with the whipping cream and bring to a boil. Reduce to a bubbling simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until reduced by half, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, cook the sausages in a large pan with a circle or two of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from the pan, wipe it clean with a paper towel, and return the sausage to the pan to rest.
- When the cream has reduced, remove ¼ of the peppers and set aside. Blend the remaining peppers and the cream with an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender or small food processor), and then pour into the pot with the sausages. Add the additional peppers and pasta and cook over medium heat for another 2-3 minutes or until everything is warmed through.
- Garnish with basil leaves and grated parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
More Easy Italian Pastas You’ll Love
- 5-Ingredient Cacio e Pepe
- Spaghetti alla Carbonara
- Homemade Pesto Pasta
- Lemon Fettuccine Alfredo
- Pesto Pasta with Balsamic Chicken
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Robin Hamilton
This creamy roasted red pepper and chicken sausage pasta is the food of champions! Dying to eat this! Thanks for posting it Heidi!
Ashley Sorenson
Food of champions!! Thank you Robin!
Bella Hardy
Absolutely love your creative idea with creamy roasted red pepper and chicken sausage pasta! Never seen something like this! Definitely I will try to make it too! Thx for sharing!
Jill Roberts
These are so Instagrammable and adorable! I finally got to make this creamy roasted red pepper and chicken sausage pasta this past weekend and it was such a hit!!
Liv
Hi dear how do I roast the peppers if I use fresh peppers?
Thanks
Julie @ This Gal Cooks
Whoa! This looks crazy good and needs to be on my plate stat! And congrats to Bev on the twins! How fun they will be! :)
love quotes for her
What’s up, after reading this awesome paragraph i am
too happy to share my knowledge here with friends.
Laura @ Laura's Culinary Adventures
Sausage and pasta: comfort food!
Aggie
I agree… with all of it, Bev is a marvel! She looks so damn good for carrying 2 little babies…not to mention recipe after recipe, post after post of pure funny and delicious.
Speaking of delicious, this pasta is just that. I can already tell. I wish I had a bowl for lunch!
brandi
yes, yes, yes – to the pasta, to everything about bev, to those little babies that are going to be way too cute/talented/funny for their own good. i love Radiatori!
Paula – bell’alimento
This pasta dish looks delicious! I had to share on FB.
Lisa [With Style & Grace]
I want! This is totally my comfort.
Laurie {Simply Scratch}
Gorgeous pasta Heidi!
Amy @Very Culinary
This recipe is perfect for her. And me. And all my friends. Group hug!
Tieghan
Could Bev be anymore gorgeous! Seriously!
And this past is do die for. Such pretty photos!
Shaina
This is a completely gorgeous pasta dish. I’m wishing I had a bowl for dinner tonight.
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
Gorgeous and so perfect for Bev!
Heather || Heather's Dish
If this doesn’t just scream Bev then I don’t know what does, which basically means I would hoard the entire recipe to myself and eat it all :)
Kathryn
Oh yes, this is perfect Bev food.
Stephanie @ Girl Versus Dough
Everything going on in this pasta = HOLY MAMA YES.
Bev @ Bev Cooks
Heidi! I’m seriously in shock today. You’re SO sweet and awesome to celebrate me and these bebes in this way and that PASTA has me freaking out a little. You know how I love my pasta. And sausage. Dear Lord.
Thank you so much for this tribute! I’m totally teary. xo!
So does that mean we can be twins? xo
Brian @ A Thought For Food
Oh goodness… I don’t think I can show this to Eric because he’d be drooling over that chicken sausage. Looks pretty darn fabulous!
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl
You have such a perfect way of describing people. :-)
Ali | Gimme Some Oven
Perfectly written. And this pasta looks ridiculously good!
shelly (cookies and cups)
I can’t even stand how amazing this pasta is. Can’t. Even. Stand.
Aimee @ Simple Bites
Yaaay! I’m so excited for Bev. I have a feeling she’s going to want to faceplant right in this pasta and I wouldn’t blame her a bit!
Robyn @ simply fresh dinners
Whoa, this looks fantastic, Heidi. It’s got all my favourite ingredients too.
Bev, you look fantastic and congratulation on your upcoming twin package! Thanks for inspiration today, Ladies – foodwise and lifewise.
Trisha
Looks like such delicious and comforting pasta! Must try it x