Looking for an easy, fast, and budget-friendly dinner idea for busy nights? Try this simple smoked sausage and zucchini skillet with butter, garlic, and Parmesan noodles for a delicious and hearty meal your whole family will enjoy.
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If you are like me, you are always looking for quick, easy, and frugal recipes you can feed the family. Especially when the recipes are kid-approved, simple to prepare, and have few ingredients. Since my boys have always loved smoked sausage and zucchini, this has become one of our go-to budget-friendly meals on busy weeknights.
This simple smoked sausage and zucchini skillet is not only delicious but also super easy to customize. It’s hearty enough for cozy fall dinners but also quick to throw together on hot summer nights when all you want to do is be outside enjoying the beautiful weather.
Honestly, it’s the perfect fast and satisfying dinner any time of the year, which is why I wanted to share it. But what makes this one-skillet sausage and zucchini recipe even better is that it’s served over butter garlic parmesan noodles, making it the ultimate family-friendly skillet recipe.
Why You Should Make This Smoked Sausage, Zucchini, and Pasta
- Quick and easy recipe, as it’s perfect for busy weeknights when you need something on the table fast.
- With only 7 ingredients, it’s a budget-friendly recipe, making it an ideal family meal when you are trying to save money.
- Simple to customize, because you can change up the ingredients by adding different vegetables, meats, and pasta.
- Kid-friendly meal, as this is my family’s go-to recipe any time of the year, because of how much my picky eaters love it.
Looking for more budget-friendly meal ideas? You can’t go wrong with these quick family dinners, easy kid-friendly recipes, and cheap meal ideas when money is tight and you need simple recipes to feed the family for less. Plus, hearty pasta dishes, easy ground beef dinner recipes, delicious rotisserie chicken recipes, and fun taco night recipes never disappoint.
Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Skillet
Ingredients for Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Over Pasta
This simple smoked sausage with zucchini and pasta requires only 7 ingredients for a delicious, quick, and frugal family-friendly dinner idea that is perfect when you need to get dinner on the table fast on busy weeknights.
You will need:
- Smoked Sausage or Polska Kielbasa
- Zucchini
- Yellow Squash
- Butter
- Egg Noodles
- Parmesan cheese
- Minced garlic
How to Make Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Skillet
- Start by slicing and quartering the zucchini and yellow squash.
- Melt a tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a preheated skillet. Then, add the zucchini and squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until tender, stirring occasionally.
- While cooking the zucchini and squash, boil your egg noodles according to the directions on the package.
- Once your zucchini and squash have softened, add some sliced (and quartered) smoked sausage and let it cook for 4-5 minutes or until warmed through.
- When the egg noodles are cooked, drain (don’t rinse) and add them back to the pot.
- Melt the butter in a skillet, add minced garlic, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to your noodles. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and stir to combine.
- Serve the smoked sausage and zucchini over the pasta and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese and enjoy!
Storage and Leftovers
- You can store any leftovers from the smoked sausage, zucchini, and garlic butter noodles in the fridge for 3 days in a covered airtight container.
- To heat the leftovers, you can microwave them for a couple of minutes or until warmed through, or reheat over low heat in a skillet.
Variations
This recipe is always on rotation in our home because it’s quick and simple to make, especially on busy school nights. And, because we love the recipe so much, we’ve adapted it into a different variation, Kielbasa With Peppers and Onions Over Noodles, which we also really enjoy.
Here are a few more ways to customize this recipe:
- Try replacing the smoked sausage. Use chicken or turkey sausage to make the recipe healthier. You can also use regular or ground Italian sausage. Just keep in mind that if it’s not pre-cooked, the sausage will have to be started before the vegetables, as the meat will take longer to cook.
- You can switch out the vegetables. Add onions or peppers instead.
- Try this recipe with a different type of pasta. You can use penne, rigatoni, or linguine.
- Add in some red pepper flakes. If you want a little more spice.
- Try cooking this recipe on the griddle or wrapped in foil and cooked on a grill. Combine your ingredients (you can also add potato slices) in a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil with some butter, and then fold up the aluminum foil. Then, just grill until potatoes are tender and vegetables and meat are cooked through.
Looking for more foil pack recipes for summer? 16 Easy and Delicious Foil Pack Dinners.
Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 12 ounce smoked sausage sliced and quartered
- 3 medium zucchini sliced and quartered
- 1 medium yellow squash sliced and quartered
- salt and pepper to taste
Butter Garlic Noodles
- 16 ounce egg noodles wide
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 clove (small) garlic minced
- ⅓ cup parmesan cheese shredded (plus more to sprinkle on top)
Instructions
- Heat butter (or olive oil) in a skillet over medium heat.
- Add your zucchini and yellow squash that has been sliced and quartered.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cook until crisp and tender.
- While the zucchini and squash are cooking, boil your egg noodles according to directions on the package.
- Add the sliced and quartered smoked sausage to the skillet with the zucchini and cook for 4-5 minutes or until warmed through.
- When egg noodles are done, drain and add them back to the pot.
- Melt your butter over medium heat, then add your minced garlic, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Once the butter garlic sauce is done, combine with the egg noodles, sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese, then stir to combine the flavors.
- Serve your smoked sausage and zucchini skillet over your butter parmesan noodles. Sprinkle with a little more parmesan and enjoy!
Notes
- You can use olive oil in place of the butter when frying the zucchini, although we prefer the flavor of the butter; it's good both ways.
- Garlic powder and grated parmesan cheese can be substituted for the minced garlic and shredded parmesan.
- You can adjust the amount of garlic if you would like. As a reminder, one clove of garlic equals about 1 teaspoon of pre-minced garlic.
- If you prefer your kielbasa to be more charred, you can add it before the zucchini gets tender so it has more time to cook in the skillet.
- Also, this recipe is for pre-cooked smoked sausage (kielbasa). If you decide to use Italian sausage or any other type of uncooked sausage, it should be cooked first.
- It will keep in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container.
You May Like:
- Best Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Shortcut Chicken Parmesan Bake
- Easy 3-Meat French Bread Pizza
- Layered Nacho Casserole
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