Orecchiette with spicy sausage & Parmesan from Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home-Cooking Triumphs (page 142) by Julia Turshen

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Notes about this recipe

  • MollyB on March 24, 2026

    This was great! I feel that using spicy sausage, the full amount of Parmesan, and taking the time to fully caramelize the onions really helped the flavors come together. We loved it and were fine with just the 1/2-lb. of sausage and lots of spinach. I like Melissa_427's idea of putting the spinach in the colander when draining the pasta - it took my spinach quite a while to wilt and get integrated.

  • snoozermoose on May 31, 2022

    I didn't think this recipe could improve on a classic but was pleasantly surprised. The lemon zest really lifts the whole dish and makes it special. We loved this.

  • chawkins on February 24, 2022

    I made half a recipe using penne and increased the amount of sausage by 75%. We enjoyed it, it was very tasty but then I think that you need to use spicy sausage or else it might be a tad bland.

  • bernalgirl on February 23, 2022

    My family loved this. I prefer a more basic preparation with some white wine and a sauce made mainly of the pasta water but this was such a hit, and so easy, that I’m sure I’ll make it again. I used the extra cooking time on the onions to prepare a salad.

  • Melissa_427 on July 07, 2021

    Really enjoyed this dish. For future reference, I think I'll place the raw spinach into the colander as I pour the noodles/water through as I wanted that wilting process to be a little quicker so that the meal itself would come together quicker. But really, very satisfying!

  • Rutabaga on October 01, 2019

    My family really enjoyed this - well, except for the three-year-old, but even he still ate it. We found it very flavorful, but I did make a few changes. I used almost a pound sausage rather than eight ounces. This makes for a much heartier main dish, otherwise I feel it would be too pasta-heavy. I also added the pasta to the saute pan with the onions, rather than transferring the onions to the pasta pot. Before adding the pasta, I deglazed the pan with cream to get up all the nice brown bits, and then I added more cream after the spinach wilted. In a large saute pan, it's easy to add the spinach a few handfuls at a time. After just a couple of stirs, it wilts nicely into the pasta. A good squeeze of lemon juice, along with a sprinkle of pepper and flaky sea salt, is the perfect way to finish the dish.

  • ksg518 on February 25, 2019

    I made this without looking at the reviews and when I did look at the reviews, I went back to the recipe because I assumed I had messed up somehow. But no- I made this pretty much as written (except I used spicy Italian turkey sausage) and we were very underwhelmed with the results. The lemon zest helped somewhat but mostly this was just very blah. Definitely not a repeat.

  • Kduncan on November 28, 2018

    As other people have said incorporating the spinach is the most annoying part, it was a good workout for my stirring arm and why my pasta got to fully cooked. Other than that easy recipe with good results.

  • TrishaCP on November 04, 2018

    I thought this was good, but my husband loved it. (Even though I mistakenly used 2 percent milk instead of cream!) I also used frozen spinach to good effect.

  • clcorbi on October 24, 2018

    SO good, and simple. I also used frozen spinach that I defrosted/wrung out before adding to the pan. The lemon definitely does make this, as does allowing the sausage to get really aggressively crispy. I also loved the caramelized onions and could have used more of them. Will be repeated for sure.

  • jenmacgregor18 on September 07, 2018

    I used frozen, chopped spinach, that I cooked separately & then incorporated. It turned out well. good flavor with the sausage & cheese.

  • LMK on April 17, 2018

    This was really good. Followed the recipe exactly. Had a bit of trouble getting the spinach to wilt via heat from the pasta only. I continued to add pasta water (and eventually fresh water) and cook for quite a while after draining, this could be because I was using a tall deep pot, a wider more shallow pot/pan would probably work better. I might nuke the spinach for a few seconds before adding next time just to make incorporating it easier. Partner said this was his favorite pasta dish in a long while. I see it going into regular rotation.

  • hirsheys on October 11, 2017

    My turn for this one. It's fairly easy and quite tasty. I didn't have spicy sausage, but I think it would have been great with a bit more zing. I don't really love the undercooking of the pasta - I never really find that dried pasta gets soft enough cooking in just sauce - so next time I will cook it the whole way. Otherwise, this is a great recipe - the lemon makes a huge difference.

  • raybun on May 15, 2017

    Another winning recipe from this book. I used casarecce instead of orecchiette as that's what I had to hand and Toulouse sausages with a few grinds of chili flakes on the adults' plates. I couldn't find the chipotle & maple ones I knew I had somewhere in the freezer and was about to get frostbite so settled for the milder ones. I also sautéed some cremini mushrooms that needed eating in garlic butter and threw them in too. My family destroyed it, and requested it again SOON !

  • laur0684 on March 28, 2017

    Absolutely delicious! I will up the caramelized onions next time as they were my favourite part. Will definitely make again.

  • Astrid5555 on December 26, 2016

    This dish was a big hit with all my picky eaters, they immediately requested that I repeat this as soon as possible. The caramelized onions in combination with the spicy sausage and the spinach are exceptional!

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