Creamy Rotel Pasta with Sausage

Creamy Rotel Pasta with Sausage is wonderfully creamy and cheesy with lots of spice. Can be made in just 20 minutes for a quick and easy weeknight meal.

A combination of heavy cream, half-and-half, and cream cheese makes this pasta ultra creamy. A can of Rotel tomatoes and green chiles gives this dish a little Southwestern flavor.

How To Make Creamy Rotel Pasta with Shrimp

1. Cook the pasta, reserving about 1/2 a cup of the cooking liquid right before you drain the pasta.
2. While the pasta is cooking, brown the sausage. Remove it from the pan.
3. To the same pan, melt the butter and cook the onion and garlic.
4. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.
5. Whisk in the half-and-half, heavy cream, and tomatoes. Simmer.
6. Add the cream cheese, Mexican cheese and seasonings.
7. Mix in the pasta and sausage. If too thick and not creamy enough, add the reserved pasta liquid.

What To Serve With This Dish

This is a calorie laden dish so it’s best to keep portions small and serve with a green salad and maybe some Pepperoncini Garlic Bread. Steamed broccoli is also a good choice.

How Spicy Is This Dish?

If you use “Hot” sausage and “Hot” Rotel tomatoes, they along with the cajun seasoning will make this dish fairly spicy. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper for more heat.

Recipe Tips

• Other types of pasta can be used instead of rotini. Penne, ziti, cavatappi, and linguine all work well.
• I use “Hot” Italian sausage but you can use mild if you want to cut out the spice or you can use a breakfast sausage like Jimmy Dean.
• Best served shortly after cooking. The sauce gets absorbed into the pasta over time. Leftovers will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You may need to add a little milk when you reheat.

Try These Other Creamy Pasta Dishes

• Cheesy Garlic Shrimp Alfredo
• Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini
• Million Dollar Chicken Alfredo
• Spicy Chicken Spaghetti
• Creamy Angel Hair Pasta with Bacon and Shrimp