Weeknight Dinners: Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta

Today I am thrilled to be teaming up once again with a slew of fabulous bloggers for the Ultimate Recipe Challenge.  We were challenged to all use the same ingredient to create a recipe.  This month, it was pasta!  Thank you, Kim Six for hosting this event.

Pasta Recipe Challenge Logo

I am sharing a recipe that my sister-in-law makes but have changed it just slightly.  My kids love this pasta and that alone means it is in our meal rotation.  It has a surprisingly sweet taste with the pasta and the crunch from the pine nuts adds texture to it.

I find that we reach for ground beef a lot for our pasta dishes, so adding sausage instead is a nice alternative.

Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Italian Sausage

1/2 cup raisins (I used dried cranberries)

Small bag of Pine Nuts

1 box of Tri-Color Pasta

3-5 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions:

1. Boil noodles in water and drain (follow directions on box.)

2. Brown sausage in large skillet and drain.

3. Add pine nuts and raisins (cranberries) to browned sausage and cook until nuts brown and cranberries plump up.

4. Add pasta and olive oil to skillet, tossing mixture until coated.

5. Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients for Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta Recipe by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Ground sausage by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Ground sausage with pine nuts and cranberries by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Tri color pasta by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Adding olive oil to Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta Recipe by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com Cranberry Pine Nut Sausage Pasta by www.whitecottagehomeandliving.com

To see the other yummy pasta recipes click below.

Pasta Collage for Ultimate Recipe Challenge

To life feeling like home!

XO,

  1. kim says:

    Oh my gosh, Amy, this was delicious and SO easy! My kids LOVED it! It reminded me a lot of a holiday stuffing that I make, only with pasta. Perfect mix of savory with a bit of sweet from the cranberries. Thank you so much for sharing it with us at You Link It We Make It – I’ll be featuring this dish tomorrow morning. Happy Wednesday! – Kim @ knockitoffkim.com

    • Amy says:

      I’m so glad you liked it!! It’s one of our family favorites. I appreciate you featuring me! Made my day! 🙂

  2. This sounds like an amazing combination of flavors Amy! I’ve never tried them in a pasta dish before. Sounds awesome. Thanks so much for partying with us at You Link It, We Make It!

    • Amy says:

      You’ll have to give it a try. It’s a great combo that everyone seems to like (even my pickiest kiddo!). Thanks for the feature! Made my day! 🙂

  3. So full of flavor! Love this!

  4. This is such an unusual combination of flavors and right up my alley! I love pine nuts too!

  5. What a unique pasta combination. I will have to try this for the kids.

  6. Kim Six says:

    Wow. What a gorgeous combination of sweet and savory. I have to try this!

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