Sausage Ricotta Pasta
This Sausage Ricotta Pasta is easy, fun and perfect for the season! I made this dish because my husband loves ricotta cheese and I wanted to make him something he’d like for dinners while I was out of town last week. It worked! He thought it was great. Spicy sausage, sweet peas, healthy spinach, bright lemon, creamy ricotta and hearty pasta make for a super satisfying meal. Plus this Sausage Ricotta Pasta comes together easily and is only 297 calories or 8 WW Points per serving! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Looking for more lightened up pasta options? Check out the pasta section of my recipe index for favorites like Beef Stroganoff, Beefy American Goulash, Slow Cooker Kickin’ Chicken Pasta, Beef and Sausage Manicotti, Pumpkin Alfredo Tortellini Skillet, Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Bake, Tomato Soup Mac & Cheese, Spaghetti Pie, Sausage Tortellini Skillet, Buffalo Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Shells, Spicy Sausage Pasta and many more!
Sausage Ricotta Pasta
Ingredients
- 12 oz uncooked pasta, I used orecchiette (use whole wheat pasta if following the WW Purple plan)
- 1 ½ lbs uncooked hot Italian poultry sausage, removed from casings if present (I used Wegmans poultry sausage, turkey or chicken sausage will work fine)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 cup fat free ricotta cheese
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions and drain.
- While pasta is cooking, bring a large walled skillet or saute pan over medium heat and add the sausage. Cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until the sausage is cooked through and broken into small/bite-sized pieces. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook for another minute until fragrant.
- Add the spinach, peas, basil and pepper and stir until combined. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes until the spinach is wilted and the peas are warm. Add the cooked pasta from step one and stir together. Add the lemon juice and ricotta cheese and stir until well combined.
Notes
8 per (1 ¼ cup) serving (PP calculated using a WW PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
Oh Emily this sounds yum yum!! Definitely going to make it this week. I’m just wondering, if I don’t have fresh spinach, maybe I could use frozen?? I might give it a try – what do you think??
Sure! Just make sure you squeeze it out after you thaw it to release the water. I hope you love it 🙂
Made this the other night on a cool, rainy night – it was just perfect! It came together really quickly and my entire family loved it!
Thank you!
Winner, Winner delicious dinner!!!! Thank you.
Delish! Tons of flavor and one serving is more than enough! Love my WW journey thanks to your recipes!
How did you reheat this? Does it microwave ok?
Microwave worked fine when we reheated.
Emily! This is amazing! This was a huge hit in my household tonight and will definitely make the rotation. Thanks for sharing!
I am on weight watchers and was searching for some new recipes. I made this tonight and doubled the recipe since I made it for the whole family. It was DELICIOUS!!! Everyone said it’s a keeper. This will be a regular on the menu. Thank you Emily for a great recipe. This is the first one I’ve tried of yours and can’t wait to try many more!
This was soooooo good and super easy and quick to make! I couldn’t find hot Italian sausage or fat free ricotta so I had to sub sweet Italian sausage and low fat ricotta. Added a sp per serving, but worth it. It made a lot so my husband and I have lunch for tomorrow. This will be going on weekly rotation! First time posting, but I have to thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. It’s made this journey a little easier for my husband and I. Huge fan. 🙂
Made this last night for my parents and we all LOVED it. It was delicious!! Thank you for so many wonderful recipes!
I saved this recipe from when it was originally posted. I finally made it for our dinner last night. It was VERY delicious. I also liked that the pasta held the sauce. I di8dn’t have any Fresh Spinach on hand, so I used Fresh Kale. We LOVED this dish. It was VERY tasty, and not too difficult to prepare.
I made this tonight for my family & they loved it! Very delicious!!
I made this tonight using mild Italian sausage and left out the red pepper flakes because er have a toddler. Something is off. I think it’s the lemon juice. Just an odd flavor with the other ingredients. I think this recipe has a lot of potential with something else in place of the lemon, and maybe another veggie.
We LOVE this! Do you think I could make this into a freezer meal somehow?
This sounds great! I am assuming that the 2 tbls basil means fresh basil? Would it be OK to sub 2 tsp dried basil instead and have the flavor be the same? Thanks!
Sure! I’ve never made that sub personally so I can’t guarantee the flavor will be the same but I doubt it will be drastically different. Let me know how it works out!
Do you think you could sub vottage cheese for the ricotta??
I’ve made this recipe twice – both times very good! The second time I used andouille chicken sausage and penne noodles because that’s what I had at home. I’ve also frozen this before in single serving Tupperware and it thaws very easily!
This was a perfect recipe to use what we already had! We used bowtie pasta, and substituted cottage cheese for ricotta, added a smidge of herbed goat cheese and parmesan. I wish I had the fresh basil, but we made do with dried. Thank you Emily for a fantastic dinner idea! It was a hit with hubby and 7yr old!
Made this tonight and it was GREAT! I only had a pound of sausage but that was plenty. Love how easy it was. High reward to effort ratio!!
Delicious! And my teenagers who don’t like spinach or peas said it was good! That’s a huge win! I did cut back slightly on the red pepper and it still had a nice amount of heat.
The creamy ricotta and sausage together please the pickiest eaters!!
We’ve loved this for years. It’s a home run and delicious hot or cold.