Rotel sausage pasta
The cheesy, spicy-mild one-pot pasta of breakfast sausage, tomatoes with green chiles and melted cream cheese that tastes like a party dip for dinner.
- 30 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 6
- About $1.73 a serving
- 630 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 lb breakfast sausage, 1 roll
- 2 cans diced tomatoes and green chiles, 10 oz each, with the juice
- 2½ cups chicken broth
- 12 oz rotini
- 4 oz cream cheese, cubed
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced (optional)
Each serving has about 630 calories, 25 g protein, 49 g carbs and 37 g fat, and costs about $1.73 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cook the sausage in a large pot or deep over medium-high for 7 to 8 minutes, breaking it into small , until no pink is left.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 8 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Pour in both cans of tomatoes with their juice and the broth, and bring it .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Stir in the pasta, cover, and turn the heat to medium-low.
Low heat
12 to 14 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid is soaked up.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 13 min
Dolly’s tip: Scrape the bottom when you stir. If it looks dry before the pasta is done, add a splash of broth or water.Cut the cream cheese into small while the pasta cooks.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Turn the heat to low and stir in the cream cheese until , then the cheddar.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heat
Serve hot with the green onions on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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