Pasta With Sausage, Caramelized Cabbage and Goat Cheese

Updated Nov. 19, 2020

Pasta With Sausage, Caramelized Cabbage and Goat Cheese
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
5(1,215)
Comments
Read comments

Pasta with cabbage is a common combination across much of Central and Eastern Europe. In this quick weeknight meal, an entire head of cabbage is cooked in the fat left behind by sweet Italian sausage. Goat cheese adds tang and helps create a cream sauce that ties everything together. Feel free to use this recipe as a guideline to come up with your own variation: Try it with your favorite shape of pasta, swap out the thyme for dill, parsley or another herb, or substitute the goat cheese for Parmesan.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 8ounces dry rotini or other shaped pasta
  • 4tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 8ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1small head savoy cabbage (about 1½ pounds), quartered, cored and thinly sliced
  • 1medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 1teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 1cup heavy cream
  • 4ounces goat cheese
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

501 calories; 31 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 39 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 18 grams protein; 641 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 7 minutes; drain.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium. Add the sausage and cook, breaking apart with a wooden spoon, until fully cooked and crumbled, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan.

  3. Step 3

    Add the cabbage, onion, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet. Cover and cook, stirring regularly, until the cabbage has completely wilted and starts to brown, about 15 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Reduce the heat to low and stir in the heavy cream, goat cheese and reserved sausage until evenly combined. Stir in the pasta, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Ratings

5 out of 5
1,215 user ratings
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Comments

Loooove this! I’ve made it twice, once with regular green cabbage and once with the called-for savoy. There really wasn’t a flavor difference, so don’t stress if using whatever cabbage you have on hand. The second time around, I also did what others recommended: I doubled the sausage (which, conveniently, is a full standard package instead of half), and I added a light sprinkle of red pepper flakes at the end. Those two adjustments took this from a great recipe to an out-of-this-world recipe.

Cabbage sautéed in sausage fat?! Why yes!! Very good quick meal. I used pasta water in place of cream and extra goat cheese. More thyme and some Aleppo pepper flakes. Will make again!!

Made this with Beyond Beef Sausage. A good vegetarian option.

Added the cream off the top of whole milk yogurt to pasta water instead of heavy cream. Medium - large cabbage, 1 lb pasta, 12oz packaged precooked chicken sausage. Took the red pepper advice. Parsley instead of thyme. It improved a mediocre acidic chianti, and that was enough.

Just cooked this. I really liked it. Im reading the comments and I do agree that adding double the sausage (basically the whole package instead of just the 8oz) would amplify it.

Didn’t love this. It tasted too sweet? Not sure if it was the sausage I bought. As suggested by various comments, I did add red pepper flakes and a generous squeeze of lemon juice, only did a drizzle of heavy cream (1 cup is wild), and used a mixture of mostly Parmesan cheese and a bit of leftover ricotta. I was glad to have used a good portion of this giant head of cabbage I have, but wouldn’t make again.

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