Sausage and Pea Carbonara

Ingredients

  • 1 pound pasta (I prefer smaller pasta for dishes that need stirring.)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 pounds sweet italian sausage, casings removed
  • 4 cups frozen peas
  • 1 cup cream or half and half
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1⁄3 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil.  
  2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add sausage and cook, stirring, until browned and cooked through.  Break up sausage pieces apart if necessary.  Add peas and garlic and continue cooking 1 minute.  Add cream, parsley, and red pepper flakes.  Cook 1 minute, stirring.  
  3. In a large bowl, beat eggs yolks.  Add parmesan cheese to yolks and stir to combine.  
  4. Cook pasta to al dente as directed by packaging.  Before draining pasta, remove and reserve 1⁄2 cup cooking liquid.  
  5. Add pasta to egg mixture and stir to coat.  Stir in sausage and pea mixture.  Continue stirring and add pasta cooking liquid if necessary to loosen sauce.  Serve with extra parmesan cheese.  

Comments

This recipe is from Drizzle and Dip.  I love carbonara and this was a great spin on the standard.  The sausage added a lot of exciting flavors and we all enjoyed this quite a bit.