Prep & Bake Pearl Pasta with Pork Sausage
Includes recyclable aluminum tray
- Wheat
- Milk
For this creamy, delicious meal, hearty Italian sausage simmers in our oven-ready tray with springy pearl couscous, crushed tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, and Italian herbs. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and enjoy this dish in a quick 35 minutes. The best part? Toss or recycle the empty tray when you're done for practically no cleanup!
Ingredients
¾ cup
Pearl Couscous
(Contains: Wheat)
1 unit
Zucchini
5 ounce
Spinach
1 unit
Oven-Ready Tray
1 unit
Crushed Tomatoes
4 tablespoon
Cream Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
3 tablespoon
Parmesan Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
½ tablespoon
Tuscan Heat Spice
9 ounce
Italian Pork Sausage
1 tablespoon
Italian Herb Paste
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
Adjust rack to middle position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry produce.
Trim and halve zucchini lengthwise; slice crosswise into ¼-inch-thick half moons.
Remove sausage* from casing if necessary; discard casing. Place sausage in oven-ready tray; using two forks (or your hands!), break up sausage into bite-size pieces (for 4 servings, divide sausage between two trays).
Add zucchini, couscous, crushed tomatoes, Italian herb paste, stock concentrate, cream cheese, half the Tuscan Heat Spice (all for 4 servings), salt, and pepper; stir to combine (it's OK if lumps of cream cheese remain). Top with spinach. (For 4, divide everything between two trays.) TIP: Evenly spread out spinach and press down, making sure no leaves hang over the edges of your tray!
Cover oven-ready tray tightly with foil; bake on middle rack (be sure your oven has preheated!) for 25 minutes (for 4, bake two trays side by side on middle rack).
Carefully remove foil from pearl pasta sausage bake (watch out for steam!); stir until cream cheese is smooth and spinach is combined.
Top pearl pasta sausage bake with Parmesan, return to middle rack, and bake, uncovered, until sausage is fully cooked and cheese melts, 10-12 minutes more.
Divide pearl pasta sausage bake between shallow bowls. Serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The spice blend and couscous combination earned genuine praise, with the couscous absorbing the tomato and sausage flavors beautifully 🍲. Some found the dish acidic or bitter, likely from the crushed tomatoes and Tuscan heat spice together.
- Ease of prep: Minimal prep makes this a great weeknight option, though the actual bake time runs longer than the instructions suggest.
- Suggestions: Pre-brown the sausage before baking if you're concerned about it cooking through, as several customers felt the oven alone left it underdone. Add 10–20 extra minutes to the bake time, and mix the spinach into the other ingredients before baking rather than layering it on top.
- Cook times: Multiple reviewers needed 10–20 extra minutes beyond the stated time for the sausage to cook through and the couscous to fully absorb the liquid.
- Leftovers: This dish reheats very well and makes generous portions — several customers got four servings from a two-serving kit and enjoyed it for lunch the next day.
Reviews from our home cooks
This tastes AMAZING!!! My favorite dish with couscous as of yet - it absorbs all the tomatoes, seasoning and sausage flavors beautifully. Also...it was SO INCREDIBLY EASY to prep and bake, which is always appreciated. Highly recommend!!
Excellent quality, delicious result across two pans, four servings. Plenty of food. The prep took a little more time than expected, but was well worth it, and could be quicker next time.
This was great to throw in the oven and forget about until it was ready. I love that it had couscous instead of larger pasta and lots of veggies in it. My husband likes to pick out the veggies but there were so many, he just had to eat everything and he loved it. He said it tasted like pizza. So win in my book.
Tried this as a different option and was very surprised I liked it! I'm not much of a pasta/soup person but I loved this with every bite. I even saved some leftovers for the next day, reheats very well!
Added some sun-dried tomatoes and a few pepperoni slices for texture, but you have to be careful, as it can make the dish saltier if you go too crazy.
The cucumber was unnecessary and chopped too thickly. The spinach was vital but suggesting that it be torn would be helpful. Those things aside, it was absolutely richly delicious and I will certainly order it again.
This used to be one of my favorite meals. I think the new addition of zucchini added more liquid. It's much more runny this time. I think it needs either more time without the aluminum foil or the zucchini should be roasted separately and added at the end.
Loved this recipe. Great mix of flavors and super quick and easy to prepare.
Love the baking dish and easy prep. More meal options like this are amazing for busy families.
More or larger vegetable, especially if the cost is increasing! Other than that, the meals are delicious!
