Originally published on January 15, 2015 as “Italian Sasage Ragu”. Updated November 9, 2024 as “Spicy Sausage Rigatoni”

A smaller batch version of super delicious, slow cooked, creamy, spicy sausage tomato sauce tossed with rigatoni pasta.

This recipe makes eight cups of pasta and sauce, or about four servings. I typically develop small batch recipes that make 2-3 servings, but this has just a little more than that, because leftovers are so, so good!

While this recipe is pretty easy to make, it does take a little bit of time. Luckily, most of that time is “hands off”, or time where the sauce just simmers on the stove to build flavor. It’s perfect for a slow and cozy weekend dinner, or if you’re working from home and have the time to check on it every now and then!

You can absolutely double or triple this recipe if you like, too! Just be sure to use a pot big enough to hold everything. Keep reading for ingredient notes, tips, tricks, and a step-by-step recipe guide that includes photos!

Ingredients

1 tbsp. Olive Oil
1/3 cup finely chopped Celery
1/2 cup finely chopped Carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped Yellow Onion
Salt and freshly cracked Black Pepper, to taste
2 cloves Garlic, minced
8 oz. Ground Spicy Italian Sausage
1/2 cup Dry Red Wine
1/2 tsp. Italian Oregano
1/4 tsp. Dried Mint or 1/2 tsp. Sugar
1 Bay Leaf
2 tbsp. Tomato Paste
14 oz. San Marzano Tomatoes
1/2 cup Half and Half
1 small piece of Parmesan Rind
good quality Parmesan Cheese, grated on a microplane for serving
8 oz. dried or fresh Rigatoni Pasta

Ingredient Notes and FAQs

Ground Spicy Italian Sausage

Head to your local butcher, or the butcher counter at the store to get eight ounces of spicy Italian sausage. It’s best when fresh (of course), and should be easy to find! You can also use mild Italian sausage if you’re not into heat. If you buy a pre-packaged pound of Italian sausage, you can freeze the other half of it for up to two months, or you could use it in this Small Batch Sausage Gravy recipe.

San Marzano Tomatoes

San Marzano tomatoes are grown in mineral-rich soils in Italy, and have a sweeter, richer flavor than other tomatoes. I personally think it’s worth the splurge (a 15 oz. can will run you about $3). I highly recommend seeking them out for this recipe! But if you can’t do it, generic canned tomatoes will work as a substitute.

Dry Red Wine

Grab a $10-15 bottle of Chianti to serve with this recipe, and use that for cooking, too. Really, any $10-15 bottle of dry Italian red wine will work for this recipe! I personally love Sangiovese, Chianti (mainly Sangiovese), or Barbera, for this recipe.

Half and Half

Half and half is a mixture of half cream and half milk. It has a richer flavor than milk, without adding the heaviness of cream. If you’d like to use heavy cream instead, do it! I don’t recommend using milk as a substitute though; it’s thinner, which will make the sauce thin.

Parmesan Rind / Parmesan Cheese

I talk about Parmesan cheese a lot in my recipes, and am passionate about the quality of Parmesan I recommend! Grabbing a small chunk of good quality Parmesan from Whole Foods is always my go-to move. It lasts for about a month, costs under $10, and has such a better flavor than the other options. For the Parmesan Rind part, just slice a small piece of the rind off of the hunk of cheese. It adds depth to the pasta sauce!

Rigatoni

Rigatoni is a fantastic tubular pasta shape that is so great for this spicy Italian sausage sauce. Some of the meaty bits collect in the noodles, and the sauce clings to the ridges on the exterior of the noodles. If you’d prefer to use another pasta shape, you absolutely can. It’s your dish, so use what you love!

Hopefully some of the following tips and tricks can help you make this Small Batch Spicy Sausage Rigatoni successfully, but if you have any other questions, feel free to email me anytime! 🙂

A ceramic plate full of spicy sausage rigatoni with a fork resting on the side of the plate.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

Chop the Veggies as Finely as Possible: When I first made this recipe about ten years ago, I made the mistake of just roughly chopping the vegetables (celery, carrot, onion) and assuming they would break down in the sauce as it simmered. NOT the case, specifically with the carrots. If you’re into chunky vegetable sauce, you can chop the veggies however you want! But if you want them to really blend into the sauce and pasta, chop them as small as you can.
Use San Marzano Tomatoes: San Marzano tomatoes just taste better than other canned tomatoes. They’re sweeter, more flavorful, and have less seeds in them, which makes them less watery. I highly recommend seeking them out for this recipe, as it will taste the best it can if you use San Marzano tomatoes.
Salt as You Go! The BIGGEST piece of advice I can give to you when making any recipe: salt. as. you. go. Salt builds flavor, and you only have to add a little at a time throughout the recipe to make a recipe taste great. Don’t wait until the end; adding a ton of salt at the end will overpower the flavors (and all of the work you put into creating your recipe). Add some with the veggies at first, then some more with the tomatoes, and a little as you go when you stir the sauce every now and again while it simmers.
Don’t Rush the Simmering Time. It’s easy to get impatient with recipes like this, but I promise that you’ll really love the end result if you give the sauce ample time to simmer. Will it still taste good if I don’t have that much time? Yes, it will. But if you can, give it some time. 🙂

Directions

How to Make Spicy Sausage Rigatoni

Step One: Cook the Vegetables. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or a medium-sized ceramic Dutch oven (the one in these pictures is a 3.5 quart ceramic Dutch oven). Add the finely chopped celery, carrots, onions, and a healthy pinch of salt. Stir to mix the vegetables into the oil and salt, and cook for about ten minutes until the vegetables are softened.

Finely chopped vegetables resting in the bottom of a ceramic pot.

A woman's hand stirring a pot of vegetables with a wooden spoon.

Step Two: Add the Sausage and Garlic. Add the ground sausage and minced garlic to the pot with the softened vegetables. Break the sausage up into small pieces as it cooks, and cook for about 7-8 minutes until the sausage is completely browned.

A ceramic pot full of cooked vegetables with raw sausage and garlic sitting on them.

A ceramic pot full of cooked sausage and vegetables.

Step Three: Add the Wine. Pour the dry red wine into the pot. Stir to mix it into the cooked sausage, and let the pot simmer for about five minutes, stirring occasionally, until the wine is mostly absorbed.

A woman's hand pouring a glass measuring cup full of wine into a pot of cooked sausage.

Step Four: Add the Tomatoes. Stir the tomato paste into the pot until it is mostly mixed into the sausage. Add the San Marzano tomatoes to the pot, and use your spoon to gently crush the tomatoes into small pieces. Stir the crushed tomatoes into the other ingredients until well combined, then stir in another pinch of salt.

A woman's hand stirring tomatoes into a pot of cooked sausage with a wooden spoon.

Step Five: Add the Seasonings and Simmer. Stir the dried oregano and mint into the sauce. Toss the bay leaf and the parmesan rind into the pot, then turn the heat beneath the pot down to low. Let the sauce simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

A pot of pasta sauce with seasonings, a bay leaf, and a parmesan rind resting on top.

A pot of sausage tomato sauce cooking in a ceramic pot.

Step Five: Add the Half and Half / Cook the Pasta. Stir the half and half into the sauce until well blended. Let the sauce continue shimmering while you boil the rigatoni noodles. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil, then boil the rigatoni according to the package directions.

A woman's hand pouring heavy cream into a pot of sausage tomato sauce.

A woman's hand using a wooden spoon to stir cream into a pot of sausage tomato sauce.

Step Six: Toss the Pasta in the Sauce and Serve. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of salty pasta water. Remove the bay leaf and the parmesan rind from the sauce, then stir the cooked pasta into the sauce. Serve warm with a generous amount of parmesan on top (I love to use a microplane for this), and a pinch of freshly chopped parsley if desired.

A woman's hand pouring a plate of cooked rigatoni pasta into a pot of creamy tomato pasta sauce.

Cooked rigatoni noodles in a pot of spicy sausage tomato sauce.

A pot of spicy sausage rigatoni in a ceramic pot.

Make this Spicy Sausage Rigatoni Recipe Yours!

I fully encourage you to adapt recipes to fit your tastes, and this one is no exception. Here are some ideas on how to make this customized for yourself and your family:

Customize this Recipe:

Make it Spicier: Add a teaspoon of crushed red pepper along with the oregano and mint.
Omit the Half and Half: The sauce is still delicious even without the creaminess, so you’re welcome to leave that part out if you’re not into it or you have guests with lactose issues.
Make it Cheesy: You could transfer the pasta to a baking dish, top it with mozzarella cheese, and bake it for about 20 minutes if you’d like!

Can I Make the Sauce Ahead of Time?

Absolutely yes. It will actually taste really good up to three days after it is made.

How to Store and Reheat Leftovers

Storing: Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Reheating: Reheat in a small, nonstick pot over medium-low heat until warmed through. Garnish and serve as you normally would.

What to Serve with Spicy Sausage Pasta:

Crusty Bread 🙂
Small Batch Cheesy Roasted Garlic Bread
Roasted Asparagus Caesar “Salad”
Steakhouse Style Caesar Salads

Wine Pairings

Sangiovese
Chianti
Barbera

More Small Batch Pasta Recipes

Want to make more than four servings? Increase the amount you want to make in the recipe card; there is a little slider bar near the “servings” section on the recipe card if you’re on a desktop, or if you’re on your phone, touch the number of servings on the recipe card (it will be a number, and colored dark red). You can adjust the slider bar that way instead of doing the calculations on your own! 🙂

If you make this recipe and love it, please leave a comment and / or star rating below! You can also share it on Instagram and tag me, or use the hashtag #aflavorjournal so I can see it! If you have any questions about the ingredients or how to make it, send me an email so I can help out.

xx Sara

5 from 1 vote