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    Italian Pink Sauce with Sausage

    Published: Aug 3, 2023 by Vinny and Marisa · This post may contain affiliate links · 1 Comment

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Italian Pink Sauce with sausage is one of my family's favorite meals. The sausage balances out the creaminess of this sauce making for an ultimately delicious and family-friendly pasta.

    Italian pink sauce with sausage warming in pot.

    This sauce is a classic comfort food. It's on the table in under 45 minutes and makes for an excellent meal for one, dinner for the family, or dish for a party. No one will ever be disappointed if you bring this dish over.

    More traditional Italian sauces: Not-so-secret Bolognese sauce, Classic Linguine Alla Puttanesca, Creamy Pesto Shrimp Pasta, Italian Short Ribs with Gnocchi, and The Not-So-Secret Sunday Sauce.

    This sauce would also be an interesting alternative on an Eggplant Parm Sandwich!

    Jump to:
    • Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
    • Step-by-Step Directions
    • What to Serve Pink Sauce with
    • Variations
    • Pro-Tips
    • How to Store and Reheat
    • FAQs
    • Video Recipe
    • More Creamy Pasta Recipes
    • 📖 Recipe
    • Reviews

    Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

    Ingredients for the dish

    Crushed Tomatoes. I love crushed tomatoes in this recipe. If you're looking for a much smoother recipe, you can substitute tomato puree. Personally, I like a ch

    Sweet Italian Sausage. I make my own sweet Italian sausage. You can find it on this blog: How to Make Homemade Sausage. It is important that you use ground sausage and not links and the pork needs to have some sugar in it. I take 1 pound of ground pork and add 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoon fennel, 2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon parmesan, 2 teaspoon fresh chopped parsley, and ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg.

    Heavy Cream. You can lighten up the dish by substituting half-and-half at a 1-to-1 ratio. Or you can substitute an equal amount of coconut cream to make it dairy-free.

    Rigatoni. I prefer any short pasta with this recipe! Try it with rigatoni, penne, ziti, or elbows!

    Step-by-Step Directions

    There are not many recipes that can be done in under 30 minutes like 15-minute spaghetti with garlic and oil or garlicky cauliflower pasta. Any meal under an hour is a weeknight meal to me, especially when 20 minutes of it is simmering the sauce.

    Browning the Sausage

    Bring a sauce pot to medium-high heat. Once hot, add the sausage in pieces to the pot. Don't stir right away. Let the sausage sit for 2-3 minutes to develop a crust.

    the sausage browning in the pan

    Then use a wooden spoon to scrape the sausage off and stir occasionally until the sausage is browned and no pink remains about 5 minutes. Remove the sausage from the pot and set it aside.

    Sauteing the Fragrants

    If there is enough oil left over from the sausage, lower the heat to medium and add the shallots. Enough oil means when you tilt the pan, oil runs to the bottom of the pan.

    If you don't see enough oil to saute, add a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil. Saute the shallots for 4-5 minutes or until softened. Then add the garlic and tomato paste.

    shallots sauteing
    garlic and tomato paste added to shallots
    tomato paste combined with fragrants

    Saute the garlic for a minute while the tomato paste begins to caramelize. Then combine everything by stirring together. Let everything saute for 1 more minute.

    Making the Pink Sauce

    Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot. Bring to a simmer and add basil, salt, and return the sausage to the pot. Simmer for 20 minutes stirring the sauce occasionally to avoid burning it.

    sauce beginning to simmer
    sausage returned to the sauce

    While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to a boil and boil your pasta. SAVE 1 cup of the pasta water to add to the sauce.

    After 20 minutes of simmering, add half a cup of pasta water to the sauce. Stir and then remove from the heat.

    Stir in the heavy cream and the parmesan until the pasta reaches a pinkish color. Adjust the heavy cream ratio to make your sauce more or less pink. Remember! The more cream you add the richer the pasta will taste.

    heavy cream added to make pink sauce

    Add your pasta to the pot and stir until it is coated with the sauce. Serve with extra parmesan and basil.

    italian pink sauce with sausage served with rigatoni and topped with parmesan and basil

    What to Serve Pink Sauce with

    • Serve this sauce and pasta on the side of some Crispy Italian Chicken Cutlets or Restaurant-Style Chicken Saltimbocca
    • This pasta also needs a vegetable side to go along with it so you can serve it with Italian Lacinato Kale Recipe (Tuscan) or Italian Cabbage Recipe.
    • It also is a great replacement sauce for Chicken Parm Sliders, Eggplant Parm Sandwich, and Air Fryer Zucchini Fritters.

    Variations

    Vodka sauce. If you're looking for a classic pink sauce variation, try our Spicy Vodka Sauce.

    Spicy. If you want to spice this dish up a bit, add crushed red pepper and substitute the sweet sausage for hot sausage.

    Creamy. Another creamy sauce is our Creamy Red Pepper Sauce, which would be a great alternative to Italian pink sauce!

    Pro-Tips

    1. When browning the sausage, don't move it right away when adding it to the pot. Let it develop a crust before you stir it. Stirring it right away will result in steaming the sausage instead of searing it.
    2. It is good to take the sausage out about 15 minutes before you're about to cook it so that the temperature gets closer to room temperature.
    3. Stir the sauce occasionally while cooking to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. 

    How to Store and Reheat

    Store this pasta in an airtight container and leave it in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or my favorite way is to reheat in a nonstick pan on the stove over medium-low heat.

    Italian pink sauce makes for great leftovers and is also one of my favorite cold kinds of pasta. Nothing like stealing a couple of rigatonis at 8 AM.

    FAQs

    What is Pink Sauce Made of?

    Pink sauce is made of a combination of tomatoes and cream. The cream is added once the sauce is removed from the heat.

    What is pink sauce called?

    Pink sauce has a bunch of different names and variations including vodka sauce, rosatella sauce, or rosa sauce. It depends on what country you're in and what the variation is.

    Please leave a comment and star rating below in the recipe card! I love to hear about what you think of our recipes. Feel free to tag us on Instagram @vindelgiudice.

    Video Recipe

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      Creamy Pesto Shrimp Pasta
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      Creamy Mushroom Pasta
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      Cajun Shrimp Scampi

    📖 Recipe

    Italian pink sauce with sausage in sauce pot
    Print Recipe
    5 from 1 vote

    Italian Pink Sauce with Sausage

    A creamy and delicious comfort pasta with sweet Italian Sausage and cream-based tomato sauce.
    Prep Time15 minutes mins
    Cook Time45 minutes mins
    Total Time1 hour hr
    Course: Main Course, Pasta
    Cuisine: Italian
    Keyword: comfort food, sausage
    Servings: 8 servings
    Calories: 350kcal
    Cost: $15

    Equipment

    • 1 large sauce pot
    • 1 large pot for pasta

    Ingredients

    • 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
    • 1 lb ground sweet Italian sausage
    • 2 shallots, chopped
    • 4 cloves garlic, minced
    • 2 tablespoon tomato paste
    • 1 handful basil
    • ¾ cup heavy cream
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 lb rigatoni or penne
    • ⅓ cup parmesan cheese

    Instructions

    • Bring a sauce pot to medium-high heat. Once hot, add the sausage in pieces to the pot. Don't stir right away. Let the sausage sit for 2-3 minutes to develop a crust. Then stir occasionally until the sausage is browned and no pink remains. Remove the sausage from the pot and set aside.
    • If there is enough oil left over from the sausage, lower the heat to medium and add the shallots. If not add a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil. Saute the shallots for 4-5 minutes or until softened. Then add the garlic and tomato paste. Saute the garlic for a minute while the tomato paste begins to caramelize. Then combine everything by stirring together.
    • Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot. Bring to a simmer and then add basil, salt, and the sausage. Simmer for 20 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to a boil and boil your pasta. SAVE 1 cup of the pasta water to add to the sauce.
    • After 20 minutes of simmering, add half a cup of pasta water to the sauce. Stir and then remove from the heat. Stir in the heavy cream and the parmesan until the pasta reaches a pinkish color. Then add your pasta to the pot and stir until the pasta is coated with the sauce.
    • Serve with extra parmesan cheese and basil!

    Notes

    1. When browning the sausage, don't move it right away when adding it to the pot. Let it develop a crust before you stir it. Stirring it right away will result in steaming the sausage instead of searing it.
    2. It is good to take the sausage out about 15 minutes before you're about to cook it so that the temperature gets closer to room temperature.
    3. Stir the sauce occasionally while cooking to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. 

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      Better Than Olive Garden Eggplant Parmigiana

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Frank

      September 15, 2023 at 1:34 am

      5 stars
      This recipe is incredible! The sausage goes so well with all the flavors. Highly recommend and very easy recipe to follow. I will be making this again very soon!

      Reply

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    Vinny DelGiudice, MS CCC-SLP

    My name is Vinny. I am a speech pathologist specializing in swallowing and voice disorders and an Italian who has been eating too much food his whole life. I want to share the recipes I grew up eating in an Italian-American home and the recipes that I cook in my home for my family. At Always From Scratch, we consider any food that we make at home a healthy meal for the family!

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