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 preps!! Hands down my favorite recipe from Mason! I usually sub out the turkey cheddar sausages for “Mozzarella Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausages” from SAM’s Club!!
This is one of the best recipes we’ve tried so far! We exchanged the meat for lean ground turkey to make it a little healthier and it was so good still!! Gotta love the sauce mixture.
Drool worthy! My husband doesnt typically like the “healthy” recipes but he loves this! Banza pasta is fire, such a great pasta substitute. We couldn’t find light alfredo so just used marina, but still so good! Our favorite Mason recipe!
If I could give this more stars, I would. I’ve made this quite a few times and sometimes I double the amount of zucchini & red peppers just to get more veggies in. It’s still just as creamy!
My favorite recipe for sure! I made this and everyone absolutely loved it.
I absolutely love love love this recipe!! So did my picky boyfriend who hates when I make meals “healthier”.
I can’t express how incredibly happy I have found masons website and instagram. I am counting macros and making his meals have made it so much easier and livable! I enjoy my food with his meals!
I am down 4% body fat and loving life with all the help of his recipes. They are so incredibly easy and cooking and buying the ingredients are so incredibly easy and reasonable.
This is one of our staples! And you can add in other proteins or veggies too (we love adding in shrimp and onion). It’s good with or without baking as well!
This is by far one of my most made recipes from this blog… so good it doesn’t feel like a “healthier” version of anything! Easy to boot!
Incredible! I use andouille sausage in this recipe and takes it to the next level. This recipe is so easy and so delicious and has become a staple in our house
This is one of my favorite. Made it twice now. I use a little less cujan and the second time around I make sure the sausage was cooked and crisp before adding in the veggies. Which was really great. Love this recipe