Vegetarian Sausage Pasta with Cerasuolo

Our Vegetarian Sausage Pasta uses spicy Italian Beyond Sausage to provide robust sausage flavor without meat. The Beyond Sausage cooks along with onions, peppers, tomatoes and more for a flavorful and healthy Italian dish.

We enjoyed this pasta meal with a good Terzini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, an Italian rosé made from Montepulciano grapes. Disclosure: The wine was provided as a complimentary sample by the distributor, Bacchus Wines.

We do try to work plant based meals into our rotation on a regular basis, although maybe not enough to be considered flexitarian.

The spicy Italian Beyond Sausage we used, from the Beyond Meat company, does a pretty good job of matching the flavor you would get from the traditional pork product. Thus, it was pretty easy to pivot from a recipe like this Ziti with Sausage, Peppers and Onions to today’s Vegetarian Sausage Pasta.

For another healthy pasta recipe, check out our Andouille Sausage Pasta recipe, which uses chicken sausage along with beans and veggies for a healthier option.

In case you want to go all in on the Italian Beyond Sausage, we are including our Amazon affiliate link to a set of 8 packages of them.

Tips for making veggie sausage pasta

Here are some of our tips for making this veggie sausage pasta. Head down to the recipe card for all the details!

• Start by browning the vegetarian sausage, as you would a meat based sausage. 
• Take the browned sausage out and set it aside. Cook the onions and other veggies in the same skillet as the sausage.
• We added a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes. Sometimes we skip tomatoes with a sausage pasta, but we correctly thought it would work well with our wine pairing.
• Skip the cheese topping or use a nondairy alternative such as the Go Veggie plant based cheese (Amazon affiliate link provided).
• You could use a chicken or turkey sausage here if you are looking to reduce fat content without necessarily making a vegetarian dish.

Wine Pairing

We had Cerasuolo in mind when we cooked up the idea for this Vegetarian Sausage Pasta.

Cerasuolo is an Italian rosé made from Montepulciano grapes. I first learned about it when visiting Abruzzo back in 2018. For more on this type of wine, read our recent Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo article, which includes some other pairing ideas for the wine.

Unfortunately, Cerasuolo can be a bit hard to track down in the US. Fortunately, I was able to connect with John Maisano of Bacchus Imports to obtain a bottle of 2018 Terzini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo (14% ABV).

This rosé is classic deep dark pink in glass, cherry on the palate, good structure and some moderate acidity and minerality. As suspected, it turned out to be an excellent pairing for the pasta dish!

About Cantina Terzini

Cantina Terzini is located by the commune of Castiglione a Casauria, which is in the the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region. The area is close to the Gran Sasso mountain, and not far from the Adriatic sea.

photo courtesy of Cantina Terzini.

This is typical of Abruzzo wineries, to be located between the mountains and the sea, with good elevation and terroir.

For more about the winery, check out the interview I did back in 2019 when their export manager was visiting our area.  

The Cantina Terzini website explains that in 2009 Domenico Terzino founded Cantina Terzini winery, building on a longstanding family vocation of making wine. Terzini has grown from 6 hectares to over 22 during this period of time. The Terzini family continues to actively manage the winery, both the winemaking and the business operations.

Vegetarian Sausage Pasta

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

Vegetarian Sausage Pasta uses spicy Italian Beyond Sausage to provide robust sausage flavor without meat. The Beyond Sausage cooks along with onions, pepper, tomatoes and more for a flavorful and healthy Italian dish.

• Author: Cooking Chat
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 40 mins
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: main
• Method: stove top
• Cuisine: Italian
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 3 spicy Italian Beyond Sausages (10 to 11 ozs total) or similar
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 14 ½ oz can diced tomatoes
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 6 olives, sliced
• 12 ozs ziti
• handful of spinach
• 1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• grated Parmesan cheese to pass at table (use vegan version to make the dish vegan)

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the Beyond Sausages and brown the outside, turning occasionally. Remove when the sausage has browned, about 5 minutes. Set the sausage aside to cool.
2. Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet used to brown the sausage. Add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes until it begins to soften.
3. Stir the bell pepper into the skillet, cook for a few more minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.
4. After adding the pepper to the skillet, start cooking the pasta in a large pot according to package instructions.
5. Stir the tomatoes into the skillet, along with the basil and oregano. Cook for about 5 minutes.
6. Slice the browned Beyond Sausage, and stir back into the skillet along with the sliced olives.
7. Simmer the sauce for 5 to 10 minutes after adding the Beyond Sausage slices, stirring occasionally. It will likely start breaking up in into smaller bits; that is fine. Add the fresh parsley toward the end of simmering, if using.
8. Drain the pasta after cooked to your liking. Toss the pasta immediately with the Beyond Sausage sauce. Plate and pass cheese at the table for topping. Enjoy!

Notes

• We like the Beyond Sausage brand for a vegan sausage option, but you could other brands. We have also made a similar dish with chicken or turkey, if you are a flexitarian looking for healthy sausage pasta recipes.
• We label the dish vegetarian sausage pasta as we like to add regular Parmesan cheese. You could make this vegan by using a product such as the Go Veggie plant based cheese.
• As mentioned in the instructions, we found the Beyond Sausage breaks into little bits when cooking, particularly when using a package that we had frozen and then thawed for the dish. Though not our intention, this did make for a nice thick sauce.

Keywords: beyond sausage, vegetarian sausage pasta, meatless sausage recipes

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