This baked burrata and Italian sausage pasta is one of my new favorite meals to make at home. This recipe is thanks to my lovely boss who introduced me to her version of this dish and along with it the magic of burrata cheese. Seriously, if you have not yet tried melting a big old glob of burrata over pasta, you are missing out. This pasta is creamy, satisfying, and full of protein!
If you're feeling fancy, make some crusty French bread to go with your pasta!
Ingredients And Substitutes
Burrata: So, a lot of the magic of this pasta dish comes from the cheese. Burrata is essentially a soft ball of mozzarella wrapped around cream soaked shreds of more mozzarella. Learn more about burrata! Because this cheese is pretty unique I highly recommend using it if you can find it. However, if that does not work out for you, mozzarella will be the closest easily available approximation.
Sundried tomato pesto: While this is called pesto, it is quite a bit different than standard basil pesto. It adds a nice depth of flavor to the tomato pasta sauce. I have been able to find this in the canned tomato area of our grocery stores with no issue. However, if you can't find a sundried tomato pesto you can either leave it out or add a few chopped up sundried tomatoes to the sauce.
Italian sausage: I like to use hot Italian sausage for this dish but if that's not your speed mild will do just fine. In a pinch other types of ground sausage can be used.
Crushed tomatoes: I chose to use crushed tomatoes for this recipe because they provide a smooth texture for the base of this Italian sausage pasta. However, if you like a little more texture in your tomato sauce you can also use diced tomatoes.
Pasta: The type of pasta you use is customizable. I think that rigatoni or penne work the best for this recipe because they have cozy little sauce pockets. That being said, any shorter pasta will work just fine. Some other options are ziti, mostaccioli, or cavatappi.
Then there is vodka, cream, parmesan, garlic, crushed red pepper, and of course salt.
Other Pasta Dishes You Might Like
Get your sausage cooking, your pasta boiling, and your burrata oozing. You're about to have a great dinner thanks to your own hard work!
Keep your belly full, your mind engaged, and your heart open.
Lillian
More pasta recipes
Baked Burrata and Italian Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 pounds rigatoni* Or penne or mostaccioli or cavatappi or rotini
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 3 cloves minced garlic Fresh or pre-minced
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper Optional or decrease if sensitive to spice
- 28 ounce crushed tomatoes Or diced
- ⅓ cup vodka
- ⅔ cup cream
- 1 jar sundried tomato pesto About 6.7 ounces
- ½ cup shredded parmesan
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more for pasta water
- 2 containers burrata cheese** Or mozzarella
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400°F and take out one or two 9x13" baking dish(es) depending upon whether you are making one or two pounds of pasta.
- Heat a large, deep pan over medium heat, then add Italian sausage. Use a spatula to break up the sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Remove sausage from the pan when it has browned all the way through.
- Start pasta water now and cook pasta according to package directions, adding 1 tablespoon of salt to the water.
- There should be enough fat in the pan for the next step but if your pan looks dry, add a teaspoon of oil before proceeding. Add garlic and crushed red pepper to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds. Then add in the crushed tomatoes and vodka.
- Increase the heat to medium high until the sauce starts to boil, then reduce it to medium-low and allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in the cream and sundried tomato pesto, then continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Mix the Italian sausage back into the sauce, add salt, and remove the sauce from the heat.
- Add about one pound of pasta to each baking dish (easy if you are only making one pound), then pour half the sauce over each. If you are just making one pound of pasta, put half of the sauce into a freezer safe container instead. Carefully mix together the pasta and sauce, then spread the pasta evenly in the baking dish. Separate the burrata into smaller pieces and place pieces evenly over the top of the pasta.
- Bake the pasta for about 15 minutes, until the burrata has melted nicely. Enjoy!
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