In this Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens, collards are cooked with garlic and red pepper and tossed with browned sausage and pasta. And the updated version of this recipe uses a lot of sausage and collard greens with only one cup of dry Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows pasta, so it’s a lot lower in carbs than you might think!
PIN Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens to try it later!
The past few years I’ve noticed collard greens are growing in popularity and I’ve started seeing recipes for them used in interesting ways, such as massaged raw collards in a salad. But even though collard greens might now be somewhat trendy, this easy and delicious recipe for Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens is one that I first posted years ago.
The original recipe used a generous amount of spicy Italian Sausage and nutritious collard greens, in proportion to the amount of macaroni to make it lower in carbs. And when I decided to update this recipe, Kara and I replaced the regular pasta with the Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta (affiliate link) that we’re such fans of. If you’re watching carbs and miss pasta, I bet you’ll love this recipe that’s surprisingly low in net carbs!
When I first made Hopping John Soup I discovered how much I liked collard greens, and the only thing I might change when I make this Italian Sausage Pasta again is to use even more collard greens for even more nutritious greens.
What Ingredients do you need?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- collard greens
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- Minced Garlic (affiliate link)
- hot red pepper flakes (optional)
- hot turkey or pork links of Italian Sausage
- Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link)
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving
What pasta can you use for the Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens?
We made this recipe with just one cup of dried Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) for four servings, which makes it a pretty low-carb meal. But you can also make it with one of the other Fiber Gourmet shapes such as Penne or Rotini if you prefer. And if you don’t want to buy Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta (and don’t care so much about carbs), this will still be a relatively carb-conscious made with regular macaroni because there’s a lot of sausage and collard greens and not much macaroni in the recipe.
More about Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta:
The biggest drawback to Fiber Gourmet Light Pasta for many people will be the price. I haven’t found it in stores near me, so I buy it at Amazon where you can buy a package of 6 boxes and get it for about $6.00 per box. (affiliate link). For me it’s such a treat to have “real” pasta without a lot of carbs that don’t mind buying six boxes at once. And in the recipes where I’m using it I combine it with lots of lower-carb ingredients and less pasta, so that reduces the carbs and also makes the cost-per-serving less for the pasta.
What Italian Sausage did I use for the Italian Sausage Pasta?
I used Denmark Foods All Natural Hot Pork Italian Sausage that I found at Kroger (which had great flavor) and the 5 links of sausage was nearly 1.5 lbs. But you can use any package of pork or turkey Italian sausage that has 5 links.
What are collard greens?
Collard greens are a leafy green that’s probably most famous in the U.S. for the way it’s traditional to eat on New Year’s Day, especially in the southern states. They come from the same plant family as kale, mustard greens, and turnips, and are often braised to soften the stems, which can be tough. Here is more information about collard greens if you’re not familiar with them.
What other greens could you use for the Italian Sausage Pasta?
We loved this pasta dish with the pan-fried collard greens, but if you wanted a different type of greens you could use kale, Swiss chard or even mustard greens. The cooking time will be slightly different for the different types of greens.
How low in carbs is the Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens?
For this recipe we used lots of sausage and collard greens and just one cup of dry Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows to make 4 servings. That gave us a main dish pasta with only 15.7 net carbs per serving (and 25.5 grams of protein!)
How to make Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Cook pasta in a pot of water with a generous amount of salt until it’s al dente. (Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows says 10 minutes, but in Utah I have to cook it longer than that.)
- Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in frying pan over medium-high heat, squeeze sausage out of the links, and cook until it’s nicely browned, breaking sausage apart.
- While sausage cooks, cut collards and wash. (Or if you buy chopped collard greens, you can skip that step!)
- Remove cooked sausage and set aside and add the rest of the oil to the frying pan.
- Add the minced garlic and hot red pepper flakes and cook about 2 minutes.
- Add the collard greens and cook about 5-6 minutes, or until greens are softened to your liking.
- Then add the cooked sausage back into the pan (with 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water) and cook 2-3 minutes more.
- Drain pasta well. Then add cooked pasta to the ingredients in the pan and cook 2-3 minutes more.
- Taste the mixture and season as desired with salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
- Serve hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese to pass at the table.
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
You could serve Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens with Cucumbers Caesar, Cucumber Salad with Avocado and Feta, Spring Mix Salad, Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad, or Cucumber Salad with Balsamic Dressing for a low-carb meal.
More Recipes for Pasta with Greens:
Ingredients
- 1 cup Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (see notes)
- 5 links hot pork or turkey Italian Sausage (see notes)
- 3 T olive oil
- 1 T minced garlic (more or less to taste)
- 1 tsp. hot pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 pound chopped collard greens
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- Start a pot of water boiling to cook the pasta.
- When water comes to a boil add the pasta and a generous amount of salt and cook until al dente. (The package of Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows says 10 minutes, but in Utah I have to cook it longer than that.
- Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a very large frying pan over medium-high heat, squeeze sausage out of the links, and cook until it’s nicely browned. (I used an old-fashioned potato masher to break the sausage apart.)
- While sausage cooks, cut the collards into ribbons and wash in a salad spinner or in the sink. (Or if you buy a large bag of chopped collard greens like I did, you can skip that step!)
- Remove cooked sausage and set aside.
- Add 2 T more oil to the frying pan. Add the minced garlic and hot red pepper flakes and cook about 2 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to get the cooked sausage bits.
- Add the collard greens to the pan and cook about 5-6 minutes, or until greens are softened to your liking.
- Then add the cooked sausage back into the pan (with about 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water to moisten it) and cook 2-3 minutes more, or until sausage is hot.
- As soon as it’s al dente, drain pasta well in a colander placed in the sink.
- Then add the cooked pasta to the ingredients in the frying pan and cook 2-3 minutes more.
- Taste the mixture and season as desired with salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
- Serve hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese to add at the table.
Notes
I used one cup of Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows but use whole grain pasta or other pasta of your choice if you prefer.
Nutritional info is based on pork Italian sausage. If you can find turkey Italian sausage the total fat and calories will be lower.
I used about 1 lb. of chopped collards; use even more greens if you prefer.
Recipe adapted from The Best Recipes in the World (affiliate link).
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 509Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 55mgSodium: 932mgCarbohydrates: 32.5gFiber: 16.8gSugar: 2.8gProtein: 25.5g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Italian Sausage Pasta recipe has about 15.7 net carbs per serving with the generous amount of sausage and collard greens and the Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows we used, and since this is a main dish I am tagging that as low-carb but not Keto. (Use more greens and sausage if you want to make the dish even lower in carbs.) This recipe could be okay for the original South Beach Diet if you use whole wheat or other whole-grain pasta.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Pasta Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
The recipe for Italian Sausage Pasta with Collard Greens was first posted in 2006 when I was infatuated with Mark Bittman’s book, The Best Recipes in the World (affiliate link). The recipe was last updated with better photos, more information, and the recommendation to use Fiber Gourmet Light Elbows (affiliate link) in 2024.
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