Combining pasta with loose sausage and one peak-season vegetable is my go-to when I need a dinner I can throw together without thinking too hard. Corn is great here, but chopped up tomatoes, broccoli, summer squash, and even green beans are fair game. The not-so-secret is a handful of parm and a knob of butter right at the end, which turn a handful of humble ingredients into a rich, saucy, cohesive dish. —Chris Morocco
This recipe is part of Short Is Sweet, our collection of summer dishes that deliver a whole lot of deliciousness in 30 minutes or less.
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What you’ll need
Dutch Oven
$133 $80 At Amazon
Slotted Spoon
$11 At Amazon
Large Pot
$55 $48 At Amazon
Microplane Grater
$18 At Amazon
Ingredients
4 Servings
12
¼
1
6
2
½
2
4
2
Preparation
Step 1
Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente; drain, reserving 2 cups pasta cooking liquid.
Step 2
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high. Add sausage and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through, 6–8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a plate.
Step 3
Reduce heat to medium and cook garlic in same pot, stirring occasionally, until light golden around edges, about 2 minutes. Add basil sprigs and Aleppo-style pepper; cook, stirring, until basil is wilted, about 1 minute.
Step 4
Add corn and ½ cup water to pot and cook, stirring often, until corn is mostly tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in pasta and 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Then add butter and cook, stirring, until butter is melted and sauce is smooth and creamy.
Step 5
Add 2 oz. Parmesan in several additions, stirring after each addition until sauce is smooth. Return sausage to pot and cook, adding a splash or two more of cooking liquid if needed to loosen sauce, until flavors meld, about 1 minute. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Step 6
Divide pasta among shallow bowls; top with basil leaves and more Parmesan.
Leave a Review
Reviews (61)
Back to TopWahoo!! Great!!!
jcwnyc
NYC
5/18/2023
Made this with hot Italian sausage and also some cocktail tomatoes I needed to use up, burst them in the sausage fat before adding the corn. Very good! I did not add the Aleppo pepper as I figured the sausage had enough pepper. Next time I will add it. Also used less liquid after reading reviews. Kept moistening as I went and wound up using about a cup total. Nice adaptable recipe!
Molly O
Seattle
9/5/2022
Very easy - great taste! I made it with vegetarian sausage and still came out awesome!
Anonymous
8/22/2022
Super easy, and very, very good. The leftovers were great too. I made it w sub-par corn on the cob from Trader Joes (never again) and it was still good. Put a mental note to make this in January with frozen corn to have soemthing that feels like summer!
Eric
swarthmore, pa
8/20/2022
This recipe is going right into the rotation, especially once the good corn shows up this summer. I highly recommend a process riff I tried out: while you’re sautéing the corn & basil & garlic, pull out a couple of scoops of the corn with the wilted basil, add a sprinkle of corn starch, and blitz it in your blender/bullet for a tasty purée slurry situation. It helped achieve a saucy sauce. Five (zillion) stars!
Anonymous
Chicago
4/10/2022
This was surprisingly delicious! Didn’t have very much parm and it was still good. I didn’t use all of the pasta water which kept the sauce creamier. Will definitely make again
Kat
2/28/2022
Yummy weeknight meal!
S Burrell
Maine
11/17/2021
Made this recipe without any additions because the picture looked so good. I was disappointed. With fewer ingredients, less time, and a lot less cholesterol, you can make cacio e pepe, and it will be twice as good.
H. Fukuda
Laguna Niguel, CA
9/26/2021
This was excellent!!
John Columbus
Pittsburgh
9/17/2021
To thicken the sauce add a little instant potato.
Cookie
Spokane
8/23/2021
Was good...would add less water at the end, and use more cheese and corn. (Found it to be rather salty as well, but I only had salted butter so maybe the culprit). Also added sliced cherry tomatoes and sauteed zucchini (as we have heaps to eat at the moment!!) to round it out as a one-dish meal.
JJGall
NY
8/3/2021
Absolutely delicious! Such a flavor bomb dish. I used hot sausage links for added heat flavor as well as cherry tomatoes for an additional sweet element. I only used one cup of the pasta water and used orecchiette pasta. 1000% this dish will be in my recipe rotation 👩🏻🍳
MissMegan
Eastampton, NJ
8/2/2021
We loved the flavor of this dish and it was super simple to prepare. Only negative was that the sauce was rather “soupy” for our taste. I added only the 1/2 cup of water with the corn and the1cup of pasta water. I don’t want to reduce the overall amount of liquid though. Next time, maybe add a simple cornstarch slurry at the end? Other suggestions welcome!
Loves to cook!
Hershey, PA
7/28/2021
Absolutely delicious. I made it with pork sweet Italian sausage. And fresh sweet corn we bought from the back of a pickup truck. We are in Iowa, after all. Two thumbs up!
Tim Earp
Des Moines, Iowa
7/26/2021
This was so amazing! Can’t wait to eat my leftovers.
Anonymous
Milwaukee, WI
7/4/2021