A Taste of Affordability: Creamy Spinach and Sausage Weeknight Pasta
Published in New York City’s The Indypendent on Oct 8, 2025
If you’re like me, your recommended Internet rabbit-holes include restaurant reviews, viral ramen-hacks and thousands of content creators trying to convince you that their one-pan, five-ingredient, ready-in-15-minutes-dinner is what you should be cooking tonight. The endless barrage of options can be overwhelming and I don’t want to be another voice adding to the noise. Instead, what I’m hoping to do here is showcase a simple recipe, coming from someone who has spent the last three years on-and-off in professional kitchens and doesn’t often have the energy to come home at night to chiffonade my mirepoix and sous vide my foie gras.
Good food shouldn’t exhaust you to make, and food doesn’t need to be complex to be satisfying. Many times I have gotten home from a long day of whatever exhaustive nonsense the modern world has thrown at me and all I have wanted to do is waste my money on some expensive delivery app, knowing that I’ll have to wait 50 minutes for someone braving the bustling city streets on a bicycle to hand-deliver me lukewarm food wrapped in plastic. It is on these days that I remember how my mother would find the energy to cook dinner every night after working thankless shifts as a public school librarian. She was often able to feed fi ve of us for dinner with some left for the next day, so I’m saying you can feasibly get 6-8 servings out of this pasta, so long as you’re not feeding lumberjacks or starving college students.
It’s easy to make this dish vegetarian by simply swapping out the sausage for mushrooms, which I have seen omnivores eat without complaint or any knowledge of what they are missing. Add your favorite spices or whatever you like to better suit it to your taste, or simply to use up vegetables lying in your fridge. I can’t promise that this recipe will change your life: It’s just a bowl of pasta. But it’s cheap, simple, easy and quick to make, and has never once failed to put a smile on my face.
FEEDS: 6–8 people
COOKING TIME: 22 minutes
Ingredients
1 LB OF PASTA: ~$1.00 (Any pasta with a good amount of ridges or divots to soak up the sauce will work just fine).
1 LB HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE: ~$4.99 (If using mushrooms instead, I would recommend using 16-24oz of white button or cremini mushrooms, chopped finely)
1 BAG SPINACH: ~ $2.20
16OZ HEAVY CREAM: ~$3.39
6OZ GRATED PECORINO ROMANO: ~ $6.00 (The saltiness of the Pecorino Romano is hard to replicate and a worthy investment, but if you are on a tight budget, buy a cheaper Parmesan).
BLACK PEPPER: lots
Directions
Bring large, covered pot of salted water to a boil. While this heats up, add your sausage to a large sauté pan and begin to cook over medium-high heat, breaking up the sausage into bite-size pieces with your spatula.
Once the sausage is fully cooked and begins to brown, add your spinach to the pan and cook until fully wilted. At this point, your water should be boiling so add your pasta and give it a good couple of stirs. Give your pasta a good, lazy stir every few minutes until it’s cooked to your preferred doneness and you’ll be fine.
While your pasta cooks, drop the heat on your sausage and spinach to just under medium and add your cream, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get all that wonderful sausage fond off the bottom. Let this simmer and bubble, stirring occasionally, until your sauce reduces and your pasta is fully cooked.
Drop the heat to low and add in about ⅔ of your pecorino romano and a good amount of freshlycracked black pepper. If your sauce is too thick, add in a splash or two of your pasta water to thin it out. If you’re not using the cheese, make sure to add in some more salt at this stage.
Drain your pasta, add it to the pot, and stir everything until the pasta is completely covered in the sauce. Scoop into bowls and top with the remaining pecorino romano and some more black pepper.