‘The Pioneer Woman’ Star Ree Drummond Says Her Creamy Italian Sausage One-Pan Pasta ‘Is Gonna Knock Your Socks Off’

The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond knows how to make a meal for a crowd with the simplest of ingredients.

Her Creamy Italian Sausage One-Pan Pasta features flavorful sausage, pasta, mozzarella, and mascarpone cheeses for a decadent meal that everyone will love.

Ree Drummond’s pasta dish features two kinds of cheeses

The mother of four’s easy-to-make meal calls for olive oil, sweet Italian sausage, one onion, dried oregano, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, low-sodium chicken broth, tomato puree, tomato paste, fusilli pasta, salt, pepper, and both mozzarella and mascarpone cheeses (Drummond notes that cream cheese can be substituted for the mascarpone). Have Parmesan cheese and fresh basil on hand for serving.

“This is a one-pan pasta that is gonna knock your socks off,” Drummond says in the Food Network video for this recipe. “You will not believe how all of this comes together.”

It’s a one-skillet marvel of taste and texture and, even better, it’s an incredibly simple weeknight meal that will please a crowd.

Find the full recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.

Her Creamy Italian Sausage One-Pan Pasta is the ultimate weeknight-friendly recipe

Drummond starts by removing the sausage from its casing and breaking it “into bits” in a skillet while cooking it over medium heat. She adds a diced onion to the pan, along with the crushed red pepper and fennel seed (“which kind of carries on the Italian sausage flavor a little bit”), the oregano, and minced garlic.

The Food Network star turns up the heat on the pan and stirs in tomato paste (“Kind of push it on the bottom of the pan and let it fry”), followed by the tomato puree, and chicken broth. Drummond reminds home cooks to salt and pepper as they go along.

Here’s where Drummond saves the most time and extra pots: “I’m going to add the pasta straight into the pan, uncooked! Things are getting really radical here in the pioneer kitchen.”

She brings the sauce and pasta mixture to a simmer and cooks for “15 to 20 minutes.” Once the pasta absorbs the broth, which “basically cooked the pasta,” the heat is turned down “really low,” and Drummond stirs in the mascarpone and mozzarella cheeses. “The mascarpone just kind of cuts the richness a little bit, makes it a little more mild.”

Finally, Drummond dots the final dish with the basil leaves and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Drummond’s quick and creamy dish wowed Food Network reviewers

“Definitely one of those things I’ll make again especially when we want comfort food and need to make it quickly,” one home cook wrote on the culinary channel’s site.

Another added, “Delicious and easy one-pan dish! Will definitely make again!”

For those curious about how cream cheese performs in this recipe, one reviewer reported, “This is excellent. I used cream cheese instead of the mascarpone. One pot, creamy, yummy, cheesy pasta—what could be better?”