Rigatoni with Sausage and Kale

A quick and easy weeknight dinner that comes together in under 30 minutes with hearty pasta, sausage, and kale. Save this recipe for a date night when you don't want to go out to eat.

I have to admit that kale isn’t a green I reach for quite often, but after trying it in this rigatoni and sausage pasta recipe, I’ll be using it more often now. Below is a list of different sausage that would work well with this recipe, and I’m excited to them all.  *See recipe notes below. You can change this pasta up in so many ways and make it to however you like it. I’m thinking full-on carbonara here folks. *Adds to my bucket list of recipes to try next. 

This is one of the reasons I enjoy being a food blogger. As I’m sitting here typing this blog post out, I get more and more recipe ideas floating around in my head that I need to stop and write them out so I remember them. 

Benefits of Kale 

I’m a spinach or romaine fan but kale has many health benefits and has been deemed a superfood. Kale is loaded with antioxidants such as quercetin and kaempferol. It is an excellent source of vitamin c and vitamin k. It can also help lower cholesterol, which will reduce the risk of heart disease.  

How to make Rigatoni with Kale and Sausage 

1. Cook rigatoni in salted water according to package directions. 
2. Meanwhile, remove sausage from casing and cook in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up sausage as it cooks, about 3 minutes. 
3. Add kale; cook, stirring frequently, until limp, about 3 to 5 minutes. 
4. Add broth to skillet and scrape up browned bits on the bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon; season with salt and pepper. 
5. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low; cook until kale is tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in rigatoni; heat through. Sprinkle each serving with about 2 tablespoons of cheese before serving. Yields about 1 ½ cups per serving.

Tips for Rigatoni with Sausage and Kale 

Pasta Rigatoni is the suggested pasta of choice the recipe below uses but that isn’t the only pasta you can use. Try spaghetti or penne pasta or whatever else you have in your pantry and follow the instructions on the back of your box for cooking.  If you're following the purple plan myWW plan sub out whole wheat pasta.

Sausage: I used Jennie-O ground turkey sausage for this. Like pasta, there are so many flavors of turkey sausage such as breakfast turkey sausage, Italian style turkey sausage, kielbasa, andouille, chorizo, the list goes on and on! 

Kale:  If you don’t like kale, spinach would be another good green that would work in this pasta. 

Other Pasta Recipes 

Chicken Mozzarella Pasta - Pioneer Woman 

Cheeseburger Pasta 

Shrimp and Pea Orzo Pasta Salad 

Italian Pasta Salad 

Creamy Tomato and Shrimp Pasta 

*If you make this recipe please comment and rate the recipe below to let everyone know how it is, or tag me on Instagram! If you want to upload a photo you can do that on Pinterest. Just find the post for it. 

Recipe from adapted from Weight Watchers

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