Sausage Tortellini Alfredo with Kale
This recipe for Sausage Tortellini Alfredo is pure comfort food: creamy, delicious, and so easy to make. It’s ready in about 30 minutes and has incredible flavor thanks to Italian sausage, tender cheese tortellini, and a smidge of fresh kale and lemon.
This recipe is just pure unadulterated comfort food, and if we don’t need a little of that from time to time, then who even are we? It’s creamy, flavorful, and hearty, thanks to tender bites of Italian sausage browned and mixed in with pillowy cheese tortellini and a rich Alfredo sauce.
Sure, you could buy a jarred Alfredo sauce, but this one is so easy to make at home and has a truly superior taste and texture — nothing grainy or gritty, and beautifully smooth.
Ingredients & Common Substitutions
Here are a few notes and shopping tips about the ingredients you’ll need to make this, as well as possible substitutions. Full ingredients & amounts are in the recipe card below.
- Refrigerated tortellini: I usually buy them filled with cheese or a spinach-ricotta mixture, but you can use any you like. Pro tip: these can be frozen for later use, making them one of my favorite freezer staples. Be sure to purchase the refrigerated kind, not the dried, so look in a cold aisle near the cheese or other fresh pasta, not with dried pasta and sauces.
- Italian sausage: You can use either ground Italian sausage, which is typically sold in a flat pack. This is the easiest. You can also use links of Italian sausage, slice open the casing, then scrape the sausage inside into the skillet and proceed with the recipe as directed. The amount of sausage used is also very flexible and forgiving – if you want to use a whole package, or slightly less, you can easily do so without changing anything else in the recipe.
- Heavy cream, light cream, or half and half. This is a key component of making an easy Alfredo sauce at home that is staple and easy to get right time after time. Read more below.
- Chicken or veggie broth: or stock. I do recommend using low-sodium, just so that you can control the salt level a bit more, especially if your sausage has a high salt content.
- Lemon juice: That little bit of fresh flavor goes a long way, particularly in a dish with a lot of otherwise rather rich ingredients.
- Parmesan cheese: fresh-grated Parmesan is ideal for getting the smoothest consistency here, since we’ll be melting it right into the sauce.
- Staples: butter, flour, salt, pepper. I usually use all-purpose flour, but most anything will work. It’s just a smidge and its purpose is only to help thicken the sauce.
Does traditional Alfredo sauce have cream or cream cheese?
Like so many everyday sauces and staples, what constitutes an “authentic” Alfredo sauce is subject to interpretation. It’s reputed that the Italian original had no cream at all – just butter and Parmesan cheese, emulsified into a thick sauce. Delicious and authentic as that may be, most Americanized versions of the sauce incorporate cream, because it delivers a smoother, more stable result that’s easy to reproduce at home.
To go a step further, many versions rely on cream cheese. I’ve tested a few methods with this, however, and find that while cream cheese is an effective crutch for making the sauce, well, creamy, it can sometimes give a grainy texture, plus the leftovers are more likely to reheat poorly.
Even better? After testing this several times with half and half, I can attest that it is very delicious and still comes into a nice, rich sauce. Win!
Related: Chicken Tortellini Alfredo
How To Make Sausage Tortellini Alfredo
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full instructions with timing & temperatures are in the recipe card below.
Step One: Cook tortellini just to al dente, or even shy of that, according to the package directions. Be sure to cook it in well-salted water.
Step Two: Brown the sausage. Do this in a deep-sided skillet so you have plenty of room to add everything to it. You don’t need to add olive oil or butter to the pan first, because Italian pork sausage generally renders enough fat on its own.
Step Three: Make the sauce. Remove sausage to a paper towel-lined plate, then use the same skillet to make the sauce. This is where the butter, flour, and cream come together into pure magic.
Step Four: Add everything else, beginning with the kale and Parmesan, then adding the sausage and cooked tortellini once the Parmesan is smoothly incorporated. Dinner’s done!
Serve with extra Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese to pass at the table, as desired.
Can I leave out the sausage?
Yes! If you prefer to enjoy a meatless tortellini Alfredo, I recommend following this recipe, which adds a bit of butter and garlic powder for richness and flavor in place of the sausage.
Variations
- For a little kick: Add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes right at the end. If some people like heat and others don’t, add to individual plates or pass red pepper in a small bowl at the table.
- For more veggies: Cook some chopped onions or sliced mushrooms in with the sausage, or add some diced tomatoes or bell pepper in along with the kale.
Serving Suggestions
This is a delicious one-pot meal that we often enjoy as-is or with a simple side of steamed green beans or roasted baby carrots on a busy night. Stretching it or making it an occasion? Add one-hour breadsticks, an arugula salad, or roasted green beans to round things out in style.
Storage & Reheating
- Storage: Leftovers keep very well for 3-4 days. Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
- Reheating: Warm in the microwave or over medium-low heat on the stovetop. Add a splash of water or broth if the sauce seems too thick, and finish with a sprinkle of extra Parmesan and a drizzle of lemon juice to freshen things up.
I can’t recommend freezing leftovers, unfortunately. The cream sauce separates and gets generally unpleasant when frozen and thawed.
More Easy Tortellini Recipes
Love cooking with tortellini? Me too! Try my favorite creamy Tuscan tortellini, creamy tomato sauce tortellini, creamy tomato tortellini soup, or this ultra-simple and tasty tortellini with butter, mushrooms, and Parmesan.
Feeling more of a cold recipe? This balsamic tortellini Caprese salad is a major winner for easy summer dinners or potlucks.
However you serve it, tortellini is a great shortcut to making a filling pasta dinner everyone will enjoy.
If you try this Sausage Tortellini Alfredo, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. I love hearing how recipes turn out in your kitchen, and it helps other readers, too.
You can also FOLLOW me on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, and TWITTER for more great recipes and ideas!
Sausage Tortellini Alfredo with Kale
Ingredients
- 18-20 ounces refrigerated tortellini any flavor
- 10 ounces Italian sausage see note
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon flour
- 3/4 cup chicken broth low-sodium preferred
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 cup heavy cream or half and half
- 10-12 cranks freshly-ground black pepper
- 2-3 cups curly kale washed and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and cook just to al dente, according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- While the tortellini cooks, make the sauce. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook for 4-5 minutes, until well-browned and cooked through. Stir and break apart the pieces as you go.
- Remove sausage from the skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside in a paper towel-lined bowl or plate.
- Add butter to the same skillet. When melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 60 seconds.
- Reduce heat to medium and whisk in the broth and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer, and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits.
- Add cream or half and half and black pepper. Whisk until smooth, then let the sauce simmer for 1-2 minutes to thicken slightly.
- Stir in the kale and the Parmesan. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add a bit more broth or cream. Sample and add salt and/or more pepper to taste.
- Return sausage to the pan, together with the cooked tortellini. Stir well, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
- Sausage: You can use either ground Italian sausage, which is typically sold in a flat pack, much like ground beef or ground chicken. This is the easiest. You can also use links of Italian sausage, slice open the casing, then scrape the sausage inside into the skillet and proceed with the recipe as directed. The amount of sausage used is also very flexible and forgiving – if you want to use a whole package, or slightly less, you can easily do so without changing anything else in the recipe.
- For a little Kick: Add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes right at the end. If some people like heat and others don’t, add to individual plates or pass red pepper in a small bowl at the table.
- Serving Estimates: This yields 6 portions if served alongside other things (salad, green beans, garlic bread, etc.). You might want to plan on 4 larger portions for a one-pot meal.
