You’d never know I used to be a pasta hater with all the pasta recipes I’ve added to the blog recently. From the garlic parmesan mac and cheese to the taco pasta bake, I’ve definitely been exploring all pasta-bilities. I know you hear this all the time, but this cajun sausage pasta bake could be my favorite pasta recipe to date.
I’m not sure if it’s all the veggies, the creamy sauce, or the cheddar sausage and melted cheddar on top—I just know I love it.
And that’s a penne for your thoughts.
How to Make Cajun Sausage Pasta
Puns and dad jokes aside, this recipe is super easy to make. If you have an oven safe skillet, you can make the entire thing in one pan.
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll need:
- lower fat sausage links
- zucchini and red bell pepper
- reduced fat alfredo, marinara, and cajun seasoning
- a lower carb pasta like Banza (chickpea pasta)
- shredded cheddar (optional)
Prepping the Veggies
Most of the recipe is simply cooking pasta and mixing sauce ingredients together. The most complex step will be slicing and dicing the zucchini, pepper, and sausage. Another nice addition might be tomatoes, like in my Traeger Smoked Cajun Pasta recipe.
Sausage Jokes Are the Wurst
In case you’re wondering, you can use any sausage you’d like. You could even use shrimp or sausage and shrimp like I used in my low carb jambalaya recipe. (If you go this route, cook the veggies first and add the shrimp in the last minute or two.)
You’ll see in the recipe card below I used Johnsonville Turkey and Cheddar Sausages. For comparison, each one has 120 calories, 10g protein, 4g carbs, and 6g fat. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, I love their chicken sausage options. I recently used their garlic herb sausage in my Italian Sausage Pasta Bake, which has similar ingredients to this recipe.
Update 3/1/21: TJ’s now has an andouille chicken sausage that I used to make Instant Pot Red Beans and Cauliflower Rice
Sauce It Up
The sauce for the cajun sausage pasta is crazy simple with nothing but alfredo, marinara, and cajun seasoning. You’ll find cajun seasoning in the spices section of every grocery store I’ve been on.
In terms of brands, I used McCormick, but you could use just about anything. An important note with any sauce is to actually taste it. Every palate is different, and you may find my recommendation too strong or not strong enough!
If you wanted to add a bit of protein to the recipe, you could try blending cottage cheese and alfredo together like in my high protein alfredo lasagna.
You could also go with something like the cheese sauce in my cajun low fat mac and cheese recipe.
Final Cajun Sausage Pasta Recipe Notes
I always like to add that I do my best to keep recipes as simple as possible. You’re always encouraged to get creative with my recipes and make them your own. Have fun!
One way to have fun and mix things up might be using the pasta and sauce from this recipe with my air fryer cajun chicken and veggies or work it into some air fried chicken alfredo.
And if you do make this cajun sausage pasta, let me know! Take a photo of your creation and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff.
Cajun Sausage Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 8 oz dry Banza Penne , or your choice of pasta
- 1 C 244g Light Alfredo Sauce
- 1/2 C 120g Marinara
- 2 tsp Cajun Seasoning*
- 1/2 C 56g Shredded Cheddar
- 1 Zucchini, chopped
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
- 4 Turkey Sausages, sliced (I used Johnsonville Turkey and Cheddar)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Cook the pasta according to its packaging.
- Chop the zucchini and red bell pepper and slice the sausages before adding to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the sausages develop a crisp exterior. (Over medium-high heat, this should take ~12 minutes.)
- While the pasta and sausage/veggie mix cook, mix the alfredo, marinara, and cajun seasoning together.
- Add the sauce to the sausage and veggies after they’ve cooked, stirring well.
- Drain the pasta and add to the pan, stirring to fully coat the pasta in sauce.
- If you have an oven safe skillet, top with cheese and bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Without an oven safe skillet, transfer the cajun sausage pasta to an 8×8 baking dish before topping with cheese.
- Top with fresh parsley or parsley flakes and enjoy!
When prepping for four days in a row, taste matters and this pasta bakes comes back great each time! It does not dry out and the flavor just continues to get better, kind of like chili!
We love this so much that it’s a weekly staple in our house! I have made it with 1.5 cups of marinara when I don’t have alfredo sauce on hand and subbed out turkey sausage for chicken sausage! I’ve also added an extra zucchini a couple of times. The best part is that we always have leftovers for lunch the next day! Delicious recipe!
This is my go-to meal prep now. I use turkey andouille sausage and fat free cheddar and double it! It is crazy good for macros but also does not taste like it is good for macros.
This is one of my new favorites. I made it tonight and sheeeeesh. The creaminess is a perfect texture. I used habanero cheddar for a little extra spice. Also, I highly suggest adding a little spinach for an extra veggie. Super filling!
This is hands-down the recipe I made from Mason. My S.O. absolutely loves it (“one of the best lunch pastas”) and ended up bookmarking the link on his phone so he can send it to others when they ask for it! I usually use regular alfredo (easier) and double the veggies and add mushrooms.
No surprise but this recipe is awesome and will be in our rotation often! I used Aidell’s brand Cajun style andouille sausage and also included chicken, onion and spinach. I also did half alfredo half Greek yogurt like Mason offered in the notes. Delicious and satisfying!
Really good! I doubled the zuchinni and added more raw veggies to the pasta. I used Trader Joes Andouille Sausage for this.
Hi Mason, can I cook this without the baking it in the oven portion? Also, if I wanted to increase the servings to say, 11 servings, how much should I increase my ingredients by?
You can definitely make it without the baking portion. If you still wanted cheddar, you could either stir it in with everything else or add to the top and cover to melt. To increase the yield, you could multiply everything by 1.5x to get 12 servings.
This recipe is so easy and simple. It tastes amazing and will definitely be making a regular rotation. I used 6 sausages since that what comes in the package. I skipped the oven part, but definitely didn’t skip the cheese.
Questions : 1 – where can find LIGHT alfredo sauce?
2 – when you say 4 sausages, is it 4 of the big U shaped sausages?
H-E-B has their own brand as well as a Famiglia Romana brand available. As for the sausages, it’s 4 smaller sausages. I mentioned the brand I used in the recipe card if you want to Google it to see what they look like. Hope that helps!