Sausage Pasta
The most downloaded recipe on my website!!
‘This was the dish that made my sauce-phobic son gradually start to have something ‘wet’ on his pasta! We love how you give simple suggestions to make it more ‘adult’ by adding various toppings. A firm favourite in our household’ - mum of 3 teens
A small amount of the recipes on my site I charge for - I hope you will support me and download this delicious recipe! In fact, if you download it and don’t like it, you can have your money back - I’m that confident!
I cook this often so this week I’ll be getting out an already prepared one from the freezer. Many kids (my son included) can be funny with sauce and it being mixed in, or even just trying it on its own, but this is the gateway sauce that got my son hooked! My kids’ dietician advised to serve it separately for them to decide if they wish to add it in or not. Kids like the independence of building their own meal and being left to it. It is never a waste of time making the sauce as given it is a family meal, you can at least eat it! Don’t underestimate the power of role modelling either; your child seeing you eat the kind of food you’d eventually like them to try. As always, I try to deconstruct meals where I can, so serve all the components separately and just dig in!
GET AHEAD: Cook the sauce the night before so you just have the pasta to cook.
Download Sausage Pasta Recipe for £1.50
Serving suggestion:
- A large dollop of long-term thinking (don’t focus on just one meal)
- A cup of cheerful conversation (no bribery, just connection)
- A pinch of salt (how you should take all food rejection!)
- Lashings of laissez-faire (the less you micro manage, the better)
How to serve this meal to your child
Beginner: ‘My child refuses any new meals’
As mentioned above, serve the sauce separately to the pasta so your child can decide if they wish to have it. If they don’t like pasta yet, serve it with a carbohydrate they do like. The more independence we can give our children and let them know that they get to decide how to construct their meal from the food on offer, the more likely they are to go on to develop a healthier relationship with food and also avoid mealtimes battles! The great thing about this approach is that you are not cooking specifically for your child, you are building on what is already familiar to them and creating easy opportunities to widen your child’s food list, so straightaway there is LESS expectation and pressure.
Intermediate eater: ‘My child may try this new dish but I’m not sure’
Choose a day when you can eat together. Offer other components your child usually eats so there is no pressure. Serve the sauce separately to the pasta so they can add as much as they wish or none at all if they are unsure! Kids like the independence of building their own meal and being left to it. It doesn’t matter if your child doesn’t touch the new meal, it is all about your child getting used to seeing new food and taking it in and also seeing you eat it to give them confidence for future meals.
Advanced eater: ‘My child eats most things I give them and is not phased by new food’.
Serve the new meal and if they unexpectedly do refuse it, the best advice is not to panic and don’t feel bad. It’s just one meal. Say non-confrontational words such as ‘you don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to’ and see if they can try a bit in their own time. If they don’t, it is best to move onto the next mealtime and write it off and try another time!
