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!
This is one of my go-to meal prep lunches. It’s so delicious and versatile. I switch out the turkey sausage for hillshire turkey kielbasa and sometimes add in shrimp to give it a jambalaya feel!
This is one of my go-to meal prep lunches. It’s so delicious and versatile. I switch out the turkey sausage for hillshire turkey kielbasa and sometimes add in shrimp to give it a jambalaya feel!
What a tasty recipe! Quick and easy to make and delicious! My family loves this!!
What a tasty recipe! Quick and easy to make and delicious! My family loves this!!
Very good! Next time I’ll leave out the bell peppers due to hubby not liking them. I think this is a good recipe to modify too. I think zucchini, mushrooms and Italian turkey sausage would be good. You could even do zucchini noodles.
Very good! Next time I’ll leave out the bell peppers due to hubby not liking them. I think this is a good recipe to modify too. I think zucchini, mushrooms and Italian turkey sausage would be good. You could even do zucchini noodles.
I made a version of this today, used cajun-flavored turkey kielbasa, large elbow noodles, and improvised broccoli instead of the zucchini, peppers, and onions because I completely forgot to pick them up at the store and had broccoli on hand. It tasted great! Like a cajun mac and cheese.
This is one of my go to meals. I cook mine entirely in one pan on the stove top without putting it in the oven. 5 stars every time!
My husband and I don’t eat a lot of spicy foods. This had the perfect amount of heat for us. The sauce was so yummy and easy to make! I made this one week for meal prep and on day 5 I still was enjoying it!
This recipe is exactly as advertised, or as explained above. It’s simple to make, its cheesy deliciousness and gives good alternatives to make it a lighter. This was the first time my husband or I had tried chic pea pasta and it was pretty good! However, I did change the sausage to Kielbasa. The first time I made this recipe was for a Dinner party so I doubled it, which was easy and nice to make for a bigger group. Plus we had plenty of left overs to enjoy later.