Sausage Ragu
This sausage ragu recipe is so yummy. It makes a ton, which is perfect because the leftovers are amazing! For the best ragu sauce, we simmer together a “soffritto”—a mix of diced onions, celery, and carrots—with sausage, tomatoes, and herbs for over an hour. It takes a lot of time, but I promise it’s worth it. In fact, this sausage ragu pasta dish is one of my favorite meals to make (and eat!).
I love to plan in advance so I can serve this delicious recipe alongside some homemade Focaccia Bread. Or keep things quick and make this Cherry Tomato Caprese or Tomato Artichoke Salad for a perfect Italian meal.
Why This Recipe Works
- Easy ragu recipe. This recipe requires a decent amount of prep with dicing all of the vegetables for your soffritto. But once you’ve cooked the soffritto and the sausage, you just have to sit back, relax, and let the meat sauce simmer.
- Pure comfort food. Pasta with sausage ragu is a top-tier comfort food. Simple ingredients simmered low and slow on the stove become a delicious sauce, eaten with pasta. Yes, please.
Ingredient Notes
- Sausage: I make this ragu with Italian sausage and regular pork sausage. For spicy sausage ragu you can use hot Italian sausage, or you can use just regular pork sausage and add 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning to the sauce before simmering to get that Italian flavor. If you have another ground sausage, like turkey or chicken, those will also work great.
- Soffritto: This is just a fancy word for the mix of aromatic vegetables that form the base of the sauce. For this Italian sausage ragu, we use a mix of onion, carrots, celery, and fresh garlic as our aromatic base.
- Tomatoes: We feature tomatoes two ways in this pork sausage ragu with tomato paste and canned crushed tomatoes. The tomato paste especially adds a depth of flavor that using just crushed tomatoes wouldn’t achieve.
- Fresh herbs: Right before you leave the sauce to simmer, you’ll add some sprigs of fresh rosemary, fresh sage, and fresh thyme. If you can’t find fresh herbs or don’t want to use them, dried herbs work well.
- Pasta: This meal isn’t complete without a bowl of pasta! I think rigatoni is the best pasta for ragu, for picking up all of the chunky ragu deliciousness. However, you can use your favorite pasta, or pasta substitute. Fettuccine ragu would be tasty, or I’ve heard of some people serving sausage ragu with polenta, which sounds yummy!
- Heavy cream: There’s some debate over whether or not cream is part of an authentic ragu. I feel that the rich cream rounds out the flavor of this hearty sauce, and I personally prefer a creamy sausage ragu.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep your soffritto. Dice 2-3 large carrots and 2 celery stalks, or however many it takes to make 1 cup of diced carrots and 1 cup of diced celery. Dice one large onion and add it to the other vegetables. Set aside.
- Cook sausage. Heat a large Dutch oven pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let the oil heat. Once the oil is shimmering, carefully add 1 lb ground pork sausage and 8 oz Italian sausage to the hot oil. Let the sausage meat sear on one side for 2 minutes, then flip it over to the other side to sear for another 2 minutes before using a wooden spoon to break it into bite-size pieces.
- Add the soffritto. Add your aromatics (1 cup diced carrots, 1 cup diced celery, 1 diced large onion) to the pan with the sausage, as well as a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and start to brown. Once the vegetables are softened and starting to brown, add 2 teaspoons of minced garlic and stir, cooking for another minute.
- Add tomato paste. Stir 6 oz of tomato paste into the sausage-soffritto mix and cook for 1 minute. The tomato paste will caramelize and turn a darker color as it cooks. Once the tomato paste has darkened, add 1 cup of water (or 1 cup of chicken stock or broth) to deglaze the pan. Using your wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Allow the sauce to simmer until the water is completely gone.
- Stir in crushed tomatoes and herbs. Pour a 28 oz can (or two 14 oz cans) of crushed tomatoes into the Dutch oven. If using fresh herbs, use kitchen twine to tie together 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 5 sprigs of fresh sage, and 15 sprigs of fresh thyme, then toss them into the pot and stir everything together. If you’re using dried herbs, add 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1½ teaspoons dried sage, and 1 tablespoon of dried thyme to the pot and stir.
- Simmer. Add two cups of water (or chicken broth, if desired) to the pot, stir, then partially cover your pot and turn the heat down to let the sauce simmer for 90 minutes.
- Cook pasta. About half an hour before your sauce is done simmering, boil water in a separate pot on the stove to cook your pasta. Once the water is boiling, stir in a pinch of kosher salt and then add 16 oz of rigatoni pasta (or pasta of choice). Cook pasta until al dente.
- Add cream to ragu. While the noodles cook, remove tied herbs (if used) from the pan and stir ½ a cup of heavy cream into the sauce. Taste the sauce and add more salt or pepper if needed.
- Put it all together. Drain your cooked noodles and add them to the pot with the sausage ragu sauce.
- Enjoy. Divide the sausage ragu with rigatoni into bowls, garnish with parmesan cheese and fresh herbs if desired, and enjoy a bowl of pure comfort food.
Recipe Tips
If you can’t find Italian sausage, you can use all regular sausage, then add 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning to the sauce before you leave it to simmer. You also don’t have to use pork sausage—turkey sausage or chicken sausage would be great, but you may want to reduce the simmering time by 20 minutes or so. Pork sausages have more fat than chicken or turkey, so they don’t dry out as quickly.
Don’t throw away your parmesan rinds! Adding a parmesan rind to your ragu sauce while it simmers imparts rich flavor.
This recipe makes a lot, so it’s perfect for a dinner party or if you have a large family. If you’d rather not be eating ragu for days, though, freeze half of the sauce for later.
Want things a little more spicy? If using spicy Italian sausage isn’t enough, add a dash of red pepper flakes to your sauce before simmering.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
Make Ahead: The bulk of the prep work for this recipe comes from dicing the vegetables. To give yourself a head start, you can dice your vegetables and store them in an airtight container for up to 5 days. When you’re ready to make this sauce, just take your prepped veggies out of the fridge. This sauce will also keep well for up to 5 days, and it tastes better with time, so you can also prep it at the beginning of the week and all that’s left to do is cook your pasta and add the sauce.
Storing: Mixed with the pasta, this sausage ragu will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days. If you keep the sauce separate from the pasta, the sauce itself can stay good in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezing: This sausage ragu sauce is very freezer-friendly! Just don’t freeze the cooked pasta with it. Allow the cooked sauce to cool on the stove, then cool completely in the fridge. Once it’s cool, spoon it into an airtight container or gallon ziplock bag and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge or on the stovetop before adding cooked pasta.
Recipe FAQs
Ragu is an Italian meat sauce cooked low and slow, typically featuring aromatic vegetables, and herbs, cooked in a rich tomato sauce. Sausage ragu is ragu made with sausage, but you can make hearty ragus with many different types of meat, or even vegetables.
The only thing that seems to really differentiate a bolognese sauce from a ragu is that bolognese originates from the Italian city of Bologna. Technically, bolognese is a type of ragu. So…not much of a difference. I do have a Bolognese Sauce on my site if you want to try it!
Sausage ragu is very freezer-friendly! Allow the sauce to cool on the stovetop, then transfer it to the fridge to cool completely. Once completely cool, spoon the sauce (without pasta) into ziplock bags or airtight containers and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Italian Sausage Recipes
- Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage
- Italian Meatball Subs
- Cheesy Sausage Lasagna Soup
- Butternut Squash Sausage Pasta
- Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
Sausage Ragu
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground sausage - (I use the Jimmy Dean brand)
- 8 oz Italian sausage
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup carrots - peeled and diced
- 1 large yellow onion - diced
- 1 cup celery - diced
- 2 teaspoons garlic - minced
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary - or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 5 sprigs fresh sage - or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
- 15 sprigs fresh thyme - or 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups water - or chicken broth
- 16 oz rigatoni pasta
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper - to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large Dutch oven pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil. Once shimmering add the sausage, let sear on one side 2-3 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook 2 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to break the sausage up into bite size pieces. Add your soffritto: the diced carrots, onion, and celery with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 12-15 minutes, the soffritto should be softened and beginning to turn golden and browned. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. The tomato paste will deepen in color as it’s cooked. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of water. You can also use chicken broth if you’d like! I just use water as it’s easy and convenient. Using the wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits that have formed on the bottom of the pan. Let the water simmer until almost fully cooked out.
- Next, stir in the crushed tomatoes and the fresh (or dried herbs). If using fresh herbs, use a strand of kitchen twine to tie the fresh herbs together, then place it in the pot with the crushed tomatoes. Pour in the 2 cups of water. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 90 minutes. After it’s done simmering discard any spent herbs.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add kosher salt to the water once boiling and cook the rigatoni noodles until al dente.
- While the noodles are cooking, add the heavy cream to the ragu sauce and stir to combine. Taste and add salt & pepper to taste. After the noodles are cooked drain, and then transfer the cooked noodles to the ragu sauce.
- Garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese, serve immediately!
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