Today, we pasta! This Creamy Tomato and Sausage Rigatoni recipe is so good, y’all. It just checks all of the major boxes. Firstly, it’s really easy. Secondly, it’s fast – it will come together in less than 30 minutes and in only two pans. You’ll need a pot to cook the pasta in, and then a big skillet to build the sauce. My family loves this one, and it’s a great lazy-yet-impressive pasta recipe to have in your back pocket.
Read on to get the deets on this easy rigatoni recipe or simply jump on ahead to the recipe itself. We’ve got tons of really good pasta recipe here on MKL. You can find them here, under the “Main Courses” section. Or, simply search for them in the archives. Happy pasta making!
Now, I love a long-cooked tomato sauce with the best of them, don’t get me wrong. But there is something really special about pasta recipes that involve very simple sauces, built on fresh tomatoes. This one isn’t a raw sauce – those are nice, too, But rather, it’s something more in the middle.
Recipe tips and tricks
- We’ll use two different types of tomatoes to create max tomato flavor, sun dried tomatoes and grape tomatoes. You can honestly make this recipe all year long, as grape and/or cherry tomatoes are basically season-less … you can get good ones all year long.
- So, in addition to utilizing two kinds of tomatoes here, we’ll also weave one of my favorite secret weapon ingredients into the sauce as well: stock concentrate. If you cook along with me with with any degree of regularity, you’ll notice that this is one of my best My Kitchen Little tricks – this ingredient, that is. It’s amazing stirred into just about any stew, soup, or sauce and just really levels up the flavors, big time.
What you’ll need to make this rigatoni
The recipe is simple and costs pennies to make, honestly. You should grab whatever sausage you like here, just don’t use like, raw breakfast sausage. This is meant for smoked sausages that are already cooked.
INGREDIENTS
¾ pound rigatoni or other short-cut pasta
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup sliced almonds
1 shallot, minced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved
7 to 8 ounces sun dried tomatoes, chopped (drained)
1 pound smoked chicken sausage or kielbasa, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1 tablespoon chicken stock concentrate
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter
Serving suggestions: grated parmesan cheese, chopped fresh herbs (such as basil, parsley, chives, scallions, and/or oregano)
How to make this Creamy Tomato and Sausage Rigatoni with Toasted Almonds
A straightforward skillet pasta if ever there was one, this recipe is pretty standard-op. Essentially, we’ll boil up some fat, tubular (ha!) rigatoni in some very salty water. I’m always asking you to salt your pasta water like the sea, right? This is because doing that is the very best way to truly season your pastas from the inside out. I do the same when I’m boiling potatoes, for the same reason.
Sure, we’ll season the sauce and pasta when it’s all cooked and stirred together, but to truly create well-seasoned, flavorful dishes, there is definitely something to be said about getting comfortable seasoning your food gradually, throughout the whole cooking process. This is a small-seeming thing, but it’s something that really helps distinguish mediocre cooks from really good ones. It’s all in the seasoning, y’all.
DIRECTIONS
Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions, reserving 1 cup of the starchy pasta water. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Put the almonds in a large skillet set over medium heat. Toast them until they’re just golden brown (about 2 to 3 minutes, stirring) and transfer them to a bowl or plate for now.
Meanwhile, add the olive oil to the same skillet still set over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the shallots, grape tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and sausage. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more.
Add the stock concentrate and ½ cup water. Stir to blend and then add the sour cream and butter. Add the cooked pasta (as much or as little as you like), and a little of the starchy pasta water, if needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Top the pasta with the toasted almonds, parmesan cheese, and fresh chopped green herbs.
If you like the looks of this Creamy Tomato and Sausage Rigatoni, you might also enjoy:
Blushing Italian Sausage and Rigatoni Pasta Bake
Cheesy Chicken with Balsamic Tomato Sauce and Garlic Buttered Noodles
Cheesy Pasta with Breadcrumbs and Whipped Brown Butter Vinaigrette
Creamy Tomato & Sausage Rigatoni with Toasted Almonds
An easy, super tasty pasta that captures summery tomato flavor, all year round. To keep things vegetarian – just omit the sausage and use 16 ounces of sliced mushrooms instead.
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- ¾ pound rigatoni or other short-cut pasta (see note)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- 7 to 8 ounces sun dried tomatoes, chopped (drained)
- 1 pound chicken sausage or kielbasa, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
- 1 tablespoon chicken stock concentrate
- 4 ounces cream cheese (can sub 1/4 cup sour cream)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Serving suggestions: grated parmesan cheese, chopped fresh herbs (such as basil, parsley, chives, scallions, and/or oregano)
Instructions
- Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions, reserving 1 cup of the starchy pasta water. Drain the pasta and set aside.
- Put the almonds in a large skillet set over medium heat. Toast them until they’re just golden brown (about 2 to 3 minutes, stirring) and transfer them to a bowl or plate for now.
- Meanwhile, add the olive oil to the same skillet still set over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the shallots, grape tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and sausage. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more.
- Add the stock concentrate and ½ cup water. Stir to blend and then add the cream cheese (or sour cream) and butter. Add the cooked pasta (as much or as little as you like), and a little of the starchy pasta water, if needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Top the pasta with the toasted almonds, parmesan cheese, and fresh chopped green herbs.
Notes
I typically don’t use the entire box of pasta for most recipes like this, because it’s too much for the four of us. But you certainly can, if you like. I just hoard the remaining pasta from my boxes and when I’ve got enough again, I’ll add them all together and cook them up. It stretches pasta even further (even though it costs pennies, this is still nice), and can be fun to mix and match pasta shapes this way too.
