Tomato Spinach Pasta
This Tomato Spinach Pasta has a flavorful tomato cream sauce with savory sausage, fresh spinach, Parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes, and any kind of pasta. It’s easy to make and an absolute flavor explosion!
Tomato Spinach Pasta
Just wait until you take your very first bite of this incredible Tomato Spinach Pasta! The sausage packs on so much flavor and pairs perfectly with this creamy homemade sauce along with juicy bites of diced tomatoes, hints of creamy Parmesan, and delicious bites of fresh spinach.
Your family is going to ask for this on repeat! Don’t miss my Pro Tips below for ultimate success!
How to Make It
Note: This is an overview. See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Cook the sausage and set aside. Deglaze the skillet with white wine and reduce by half.
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add butter, flour, and tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the sauce mixture in small splashes, followed by the diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add the cream cheese and simmer while you boil the pasta.
Add the Parmesan cheese, spinach, and cooked sausage.
Add the cooked pasta. Stir to combine and serve!
Pro Tips
- Sausage: I use Jimmy Dean regular sausage in this recipe, it’s delicious. I find it near the bacon and breakfast sausage.
- Wine: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc are my go-to dry white wines for this recipe. My next recommendation would be non-alcoholic white wine, which is widely available. While the wine does really elevate this, chicken broth can be used instead.
- Tomato Paste: I use Mutti Tomato Paste tubes, they’re handy for measuring smaller/customized amounts.
- Parmesan: Grate the Parmesan from a block to ensure it melts well into the sauce and tastes the best. I use Belgioioso Parmesan cheese.
- Cream Cheese: I find that Philadelphia cream cheese from a tub (vs. a block), melts the best.
- Pasta: Any kind of pasta works well in this dish, I used Mezzi Rigatoni which is shorter than regular rigatoni. Other great options include medium shells, rotini, and penne.
- Flavor Enhancers: Honey rounds out the flavors by adding a little contrast to the acidity of the tomatoes. Worcestershire sauce adds umami. The Mustard Powder adds a hint of tang but can’t be tasted outright.
- Serve this Tomato Spinach Pasta with my Garlic Bread With Cheese!
Storage
- These leftovers reheat well. I use the ‘melt’ setting on my microwave or you can reheat over 50% power. A makeshift double boiler reheats creamy pastas really well too!
Tools For This Recipe
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- 1 quart measuring cup with a spout– This is what I use to combine the sauce ingredients at the beginning. The spout makes it easy to add it to the roux in small splashes.
- Spice Rack–This is the one I have, it’s a snap to measure out your seasonings quickly and easily. (Big time saver.)
- Box Cheese Grater– Always shred cheese from a block, it melts and tastes much better. Bagged shredded cheese contains cellulose which prevents it from melting as well.
- Measuring Spoons– I have these magnetic ones which stay nice and organized in my utensil drawer.
- Pasta Strainer– This is the one I have.
- Silicone Spatulas– I have these, they’re so gentle on your cookware and are the perfect tool for making the roux and stirring the sauce throughout this recipe.
- Better Than Bouillon– This is what I always use for broth in my recipes. It takes very little space and makes it easy to measure out customized amounts.
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Tomato Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon EACH: onion powder, mustard powder, basil, oregano, parsley
Pasta, etc.
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ lb. ground sausage, hot, sweet, or mild. See notes.
- ½ cup dry white wine, see notes
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained
- 3 tablespoons softened cream cheese, optional but recommended
- ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- ½ pound Mezzi Rigatoni, see notes
- 3 cups packed baby spinach, or up to 4 oz.
Instructions
- Combine the sauce ingredients in a large measuring cup with a spout and set aside. Measure remaining ingredients before beginning.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook and crumble until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Remove and set it aside.
- Begin boiling a pot of salted water for the pasta while you proceed with the following steps.
- Add the wine to the skillet used to cook the sausage and set the heat to medium. Use a silicone spatula to “clean” the bottom of the skillet, this will add more flavor to the sauce. Simmer until reduced by half, about 4 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Melt the butter and sprinkle in the flour. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously, until the raw flour smell is gone.
- Add the sauce mixture to the skillet in small splashes, stirring continuously. Do this slowly to maintain the thickness of the sauce. Add the drained tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the cream cheese and simmer uncovered while you boil the pasta to al dente. Drain once cooked.
- Reduce heat to low and gradually sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese, stirring continuously. Add the spinach and let it wilt for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked sausage.
- Add the pasta and stir to combine. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Serve!
Notes
- Sausage: I use Jimmy Dean regular sausage in this recipe, it’s delicious. I find it near the bacon and breakfast sausage.
- Wine: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc are my go-to dry white wines for this recipe. My next recommendation would be non-alcoholic white wine, which is widely available. While the wine does really elevate this, chicken broth can be used instead.
- Tomato Paste: I use Mutti Tomato Paste tubes, they’re handy for measuring smaller/customized amounts.
- Parmesan: Grate the Parmesan from a block to ensure it melts well into the sauce and tastes the best. I use Belgioioso Parmesan cheese.
- Cream Cheese: I find that Philadelphia cream cheese from a tub (vs. a block), melts the best.
- Pasta: Any kind of pasta works well in this dish, I used Mezzi Rigatoni which is shorter than regular rigatoni. Other great options include medium shells, rotini, and penne.
- Flavor Enhancers: Honey rounds out the flavors by adding a little contrast to the acidity of the tomatoes. Worcestershire sauce adds umami. The Mustard Powder adds a hint of tang but can't be tasted outright.
- Serve this Tomato Spinach Pasta with my Garlic Bread With Cheese!
Storage:
- These leftovers reheat well. I use the ‘melt’ setting on my microwave or you can reheat over 50% power. A makeshift double boiler reheats creamy pastas really well too!
Nutritional information is an estimate and is per serving. There are 6 servings in this recipe.
I made this a couple nights ago and it was excellent! I tripled the recipe for our family of 8 (we like leftovers), and used 2# of sausage instead of 1.5#. There was plenty of sauce for the extra meat. It was delicious! I think I might have liked the leftovers even more! The sauce was thicker in my leftovers, which was nice. I brought the sauce to a boil (step 6), but didn’t let it simmer at all because the pasta was already done. I think some more time simmering would’ve helped it thicken up a bit more (?) So I’ll do that next time. I will definitely make this one again!
Hiiii Jill!!! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it and plan on making it again! Excellent! (I love the leftovers soooooo much too!!)- So the instructions indicate you to wait to cook the pasta until you’ve brought the sauce to a boil and reduced the sauce to a simmer- at this point you add the pasta to the boiling water so that the sauce has a good 8-10 minutes to reduce/simmer, which does thicken it up! (And make sure your diced tomatoes are drained) I appreciate you taking the time to leave a review, thank you so much!! -Stephanie
I see – I definitely didn’t time things right. 🤦🏼♀️ Thank you for the clarification!
Anytime Jill! It’s tricky the first time around!!! 🙂
I made this totally messing up the order of ingredients. All my fault – had several things going at once. This is delicious!!! Definitely making this again. Can leftovers be frozen?
Hi Barbara! I am so happy to hear that you loved it!! Doing multiple things at once while cooking is definitely a challenge! 🙂 Yes, leftovers and be frozen and reheat nicely!