20-Minute Sausage Carbonara - a simple weeknight pasta that requires 6 basic ingredients. A delicious whole-food meal.
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In about 3 hours, I'm going camping.
Depending on if you know me IRL, you may or may not find humor in the above statement. As a general rule, nature's not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging at the pool or relaxing on my back deck grilling burgers, BUT camping... not really within my comfort zone.
That said, I love my boys, my boys love camping. Sooooo, I'm lacing up my new hiking boots, strapping on my fancy water filled backpack that let's me drink through a tube (yep.. as soon as Joe learned I would entertain the idea of sleeping in the great outdoors I quickly became the owner of All. The. Things. - he might be a little excited), mustering up a good attitude and obviously.. LOTS of food.
Sometimes the Simply Sissom's editorial calendar and whats actually happening in my day-to-day life don't exactly match up. Today's recipe is a perfect example. Tonight at our campsite.. we will dine on spicy sausage carbonara. I know, I know.. it's a far cry from roasting hotdogs and s'mores on sticks (or whatever camping people like to do), BUT the ingredients were purchased, the recipe tested SO... we're going fancy our first night in the woods and I'm betting nobody complains. Maybe I'll even get invited back (bringing Mom does have it's perks)!
This is probably a good spot to mention that Spicy Sausage Carbonara is not actually as fancy as it sounds. In fact, its only 6 ingredients + salt and pepper and comes together in about 20-minutes. As always it has prep ahead options and is relatively make-ahead friendly. AKA... it tastes best fresh, but leftovers are yummy too.
This light sauce is made from a combo of parmesan and raw eggs, which are essentially cooked by tossing with hot pasta. They are not cooked to the point of scrambled though, just enough to thicken the eggs. It's super important that you remove the pasta from the heat source (be it campfire or stove, lol) before adding the liquid or instead of a velvety sauce, you will end up with noodles and egg chunks.
For the record, I wouldn't include this recipe in a "Best Recipes for Camping Roundup." Stick to foil pack fajitas, hotdogs and s'mores. But, if someone asked me for a recipe to include in an article about Quick and Simple Weeknight Meals.. this one would definitely make the cut!
20-Minute Sausage Carbonara VIDEO:
Time Saving Tips and Tricks
Prep: This recipe is already quick to throw together, but there are a few tricks that will make getting dinner on the table go a little bit faster. The sausage can be precooked, BUT you MUST leave it in the original skillet. When you are ready to serve the sausage carbonara, just place the skillet back onto the stove and heat sausage. You can then pick up right where you left off!
You can also cook the noodles a day or 2 ahead. Just make sure to get them nice and hot before adding the egg/parmesan mixture or the sauce won't thicken.
Make Ahead: Leftovers don't taste as great as hot of the stove, but I've never had complaints from anyone about having carbonara the following day for lunch.
Freezer: Sorry, not this time.
Print
20-Minute Sausage Carbonara
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
20-Minute Sausage Carbonara - a simple weeknight pasta that requires 6 basic ingredients. A delicious whole-food meal.
Ingredients
- 8 oz. whole wheat linguine or fettuccine noodles
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 3 links spicy Italian sausage, casing removed
- salt/pepper
- ⅓ cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup parsley
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and sausage to the pan. Use spatula to break up the sausage. Cook sausage until brown, about 6 minutes and then season with salt and pepper. Turn heat to low.
- In a small bowl, whisk together parmesan and eggs.
- Add the drained pasta to the skillet. Toss until it's coated with the fat of the sausage. Remove the pan from the heat and add 1 TBS of pasta water along with the egg/parmesan mixture. Continue to toss the pasta until the liquid thickens and a light sauce is created. If it becomes too thick, add additional pasta water 1 TBS at a time. Add the parsley, toss and serve immediately.
Notes
If you want the dish to cook even faster, you can sub pappardelle noodles or use fresh pasta.
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Dawn Conklin says
This looks so delicious 🙂 I too have days where my blog calendar and what is actually happening don't match up - it happens quite often here haha! It happens more in the summer when the kids are home and the dog wants to get out and go places (ok we want to get out and take him places!) Can't wait to try this for dinner.
Bailey Sissom says
Hey Dawn! I hope you love the Carbonara as much as us! I totally hear you about the Summer struggles. Mine have been back to school for a couple weeks now and I can't believe how much more constant I have been with blogging!