Baked Italian Sausage is quite possibly the easiest dinner ever and ensures that your sausage links are cooked completely. There are countless flavor combinations to spice up your roasting pan and make your sweet Italian, spicy Italian, beef, pork, chicken, or even turkey sausage into a one-pan meal.
Looking for a great casserole using Italian sausage? Check out my Italian Sausage Bake or see all of my Italian sausage recipes.
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Baked Italian Sausage Recipe
Any super hectic night is made for this ridiculously easy baked Italian sausage dinner. It's worth having at least one package of frozen sausages stored away in the freezer for a quick dinner option that doesn't even require thawing before baking.
The choices for vegetables to spread on the baking sheet and roast simultaneously are varied. You can add potatoes or sweet potatoes, root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, and beets. Or bake your sausages up with onions and peppers.
If cooked up as seen here you can toss the sliced baked Italian sausage with buttered pasta if desired, or place it on a sandwich roll with some melted mozzarella. Either way, some marinara sauce is a fantastic addition. Or, just use your marinara for dipping!
🥘 Ingredients
- Italian Sausages - in your favorite flavor. Use sweet, mild, hot, or spicy flavored beef, pork, chicken, or turkey sausages. In the UK, they're called Italian recipe or Sicilian style sausages.
- Cherry Tomatoes - or your favorite grape tomatoes, vine tomatoes, or even sliced tomatoes will roast beautifully with your sausages.
- Sweet Bell Peppers - in a colorful variety of red, yellow, and orange for a vibrant meal. The mini sweet peppers are super flavorful too.
- Olive Oil - is a staple of delicious Italian-inspired flavors. Use EVOO for its great taste as well as coating all of your sheet pan ingredients.
- Italian Seasoning - a wonderful addition for enhancing the Italian flavor combination. Dried Italian seasoning works so well. However, if you see the freeze-dried Italian herbs in the produce section at your local grocery store I highly suggest you give them a try.
- Salt & Pepper - the base seasoning spices that highlight all of your amazing ingredients.
The ingredients included below in the recipe card are for the baked Italian sausage as shown here. The cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, olive oil, and Italian seasoning are optional.
Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!
🔪 How To Bake Italian Sausages
Prep. Preheat your oven to 400ºF ( 205ºC /Gas Mark 6) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
Arrange. Place sausages on the baking sheet (with or without cherry tomatoes and peppers) in a single layer, and so that sausages are not touching each other.
Cook. Bake on the center rack in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160ºF (for pork products) and 165ºF (for chicken sausages).
Serve. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
*If your sausages are sticking to your baking sheet, adding a small amount of water will loosen them.
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⏲️ How Long To Bake Sausages in the Oven?
- Bake at 350ºF ( 175ºC ) for 25-30 minutes
- Bake at 375ºF ( 190ºC ) for 25-30 minutes
- Bake at 400ºF ( 205ºC ) for 20-25 minutes
- Bake at 425ºF ( 220ºC ) for 15-20 minutes
There's more information about perfectly cooking your sausages in my guide on how to cook Italian sausage here.
💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes
- Your sausages are cooked when the casings have a nice golden color, the inside ground meat is no longer pink, and the juices from the meat run off clear. You should be able to see these pan juices on your baking sheet, and they should be free of any pink discoloration.
- Sausages need to be cooked until they have an internal temperature of at least 160°F (for pork sausages in the US) and 165°F (for poultry sausages in the US).
- The temperatures shown above for 'safe' meat temperatures are noted as specific to the United States and follow the USDA food safety guidelines.
- Trichinosis in pork in the US has been greatly diminished (some claim virtually eliminated) due to the pork industry's measures taken to control trichinella in our US-based farms.
❔ How to Get A Crispy Skin on Your Baked Sausages
My family and I think that our oven-baked Italian sausages are perfect as they are, directly out of the oven. If you like the skin extra crispy, there are a couple of options that help to add that 'extra'!
For the first option, you can heat the baking tray in the oven during the preheating. Place a sheet of parchment paper on the baking tray, then follow the directions for baking your sausages.
The second option is to turn on the broiler to low. Finish baking the Italian sausages with the broiler on for the last 5 minutes or so.
❔ Can I Bake Sausages That Are Frozen?
Yes, definitely! Of course, check the package instructions for any directions to the contrary. Overall, however, you should be able to cook sausage from frozen without defrosting or thawing. This will typically work with any brand or variety of sausage.
When starting with frozen sausages, add 10-15 minutes of cooking time. Also, rinse in warm water to separate the sausages that may be frozen together.
❔ Should I Pierce The Casings?
This is a debate about whether or not the casings will 'pop' or burst, spraying the sausage juices all over your oven.
I do not prefer to pierce the casings. This allows the juices out of the casing, which means it loses flavor. Also, the juices inside the casing help to cook the ground sausage meat thoroughly. However, it is just a personal preference and you can do whatever works best for you!
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📖 Recipe Card
Baked Italian Sausage
Ingredients
Baked Italian Sausages
- 19 oz sweet Italian sausage (5 count package - use more as desired)
Roasted Vegetables
- 1 lb cherry tomatoes (optional)
- 1 large sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow - optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (extra virgin)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon each, salt & pepper (to taste)
(Note: 2x or 3x only changes the ingredient list)
Instructions
Roasted Vegetables (skip if only roasting the sausages)
- Rinse and cut 1 lb cherry tomatoes in halves. Rinse and cut 1 large sweet bell pepper into strips, then cut into 1-inch bite-size chunks. Arrange in a single layer on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil then sprinkle 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning over the vegetables. Season with ¼ teaspoon each, salt & pepper then toss to coat.
Baked Italian Sausages
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C/Gas Mark 6) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Place 19 oz sweet Italian sausage on the baking sheet (with or without cherry tomatoes and peppers) in a single layer, so that the sausages are not touching each other.
- Bake in the center rack in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.
- Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
Montana Rich says
This was a hit, we added onions and peppers that I sauteed in a skillet with olive oil. Thank you!
Joyce says
I don't understand, and can't agree, that that these peppers and onions are only 120 calories. Can you explain how you came up with that number?
But, I love the recipe and instructions on cooking everything in a sheet pan. We're having this tonight!
Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says
The nutritional information is generated with a tool, and sometimes it glitches. I'm re-running it now to see if it updates (since 1 link or serving should be around 330-350 calories). Thanks for catching that!
Cab says
This recipe is both easy and delicious and my husband loves it.
Also, served to guests, along with spaghetti and sauce, baked the sausage with red and yellow bell peppers and onions.
It was a hit.
Thank you for the recipe. Blessings to you !
Cab says
This recipe is both easy and delicious and my husband loves it.
Also, served to guests, along with spaghetti and sauce, baked the sausage with red and yellow bell peppers and onions.
It was a hit.
Making it today with onions, it smells so good.
Thank you for the recipe. Blessings to you !
Ange says
I made this recipe with hot italian sausage and seasoned vegetables. A great recipe and it doesn't require spending too much preparation or cooking time and tastes delicious.
Kevin Malone says
Made this with sweet Italian sausages I found this recipe to be quite good, thank you for sharing
Lori says
Do I drizzle olive oil on the sausages with out the veggies?
Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says
You can, but it isn't necessary. Thanks for asking!
Lori says
Thank you
Janet says
Thank you!
Perfect .
Had some frozen chicken cordon blue pieces, and some Italian sausage (5links) to cook.
No onion or peppers tonight. Sifh.
So.Roasted some smallish sized (Alberta hutterite - the best! Fresh carrots! Just rinse, top & tail if needed)
Tossed in a wee bit of each: olive oil,table salt, table black pepper. Add some parsley,butter, whatever you want, at serving if u like.
Steamed some Hutterite fresh green beans. Tossed veg together.
ALL meats (+carrots) cooked at 400f, 30 minutes. Done.
Microwaved green beans, rice in meantime.
Dinner done. 30 minutes.
Works for me!
I'll maybe get some onion& peppers to make a pasta dish tomorrow!
Chris Carter says
Best sausage recipe I have ever made!