This Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms is a 30 minute family dinner that will forever be in my recipe armoury. The silky carbonara sauce clings beautifully to every strand of pasta, and is complimented perfectly with the cooked sausage, mushroom (and optional spinach), added right before serving.
There isn't much prep to do for this Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms recipe, you can do it in just five minutes. I've tried to keep it as simple as possible, using pre-sliced mushrooms and an easy to make carbonara sauce.
This family dinner can also be shared with toddlers from 12 months +. If you do have a toddler or fussy eater and are wondering how to adapt this Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms for your family, see here >
FAQs for my Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms
- Sausages. I recommend using chipolatas (12), but you can use regular pork sausages instead or even pork sausage meat. If you use a block of sausage meat, break it up into small pieces in the pan as it fries.
- Spaghetti. It's carbonara so you'll want to use spaghetti, it's tradition after all!
- Mushrooms. Buy these pre-sliced to save time! They should cost the same as they do bought whole.
- Eggs. You'll need four large, room temperature eggs and to separate the yolks from the whites. To make the sauce, you'll just be using the yolks. Make sure you use high quality and ideally pasteurised eggs (British Lion Stamped) as we are not cooking out the egg in this sauce, it will just cook with the residual heat from the pasta.
- Pecorino or parmesan cheese. Pecorino is stronger in flavour (and my personal fave!) but if you prefer a milder flavour, go for parmesan. Either need to be grated. You'll then stir the cheese into the egg yolks before adding a little pasta water to make the carbonara sauce.
- Spinach. This is totally optional, but do add it if your family is good with spinach to give you that extra nutrient boost and crunch. I've recommended 1-2 handfuls, again if your family is good with spinach, go for two.
A traditional Spaghetti alla Carbonara is a classic pasta dish from the Italian region of Lazio, particularly Rome, and it's famously made with just a handful of simple ingredients. The authentic version uses spaghetti, guanciale (cured pork cheek), eggs, Pecorino Romano cheese, and black pepper. Most recipes you find will use pork in the form of bacon or ham and on occasion, like mine, sausage. In a traditional carbonara (and this recipe), the creamy sauce comes purely from the eggs and cheese emulsifying with the pasta water.
Yes this recipe can be doubled, just use a shallow wide bottomed pan like a casserole pot to fit all the sausages and fry the mushrooms in. You'll also need an extra large cooking pot for your pasta.
Because of the egg sauce, cool leftovers quickly and refrigerate or freeze immediately once cooled. You can store any Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge, add a little water and reheat in the microwave, stirring regularly, until steaming hot all the way through.
This sausage carbonara is suitable for nut-free diets. It is NOT suitable for those with a dairy, egg or gluten allergy, vegetarians, or vegans.
Adapting My Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms For Your Family
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Sausage Carbonara recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.
Keeping Fussy Eaters Happy
If you have a picky eater who doesn't like mushrooms (or spinach!) no problem, dish theirs up without the veggies, then add a salad vegetable (or two) to their plate that they will eat.
Making Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms Suitable for Toddlers
This family dinner is suitable for sharing with toddlers from 12 months +. Because of the egg yolks not being cooked out in carbonara, they just cook in the residual heat from the pasta, I don't recommend serving to babies, even with the sausage removed for their servings.
Adding salt is unnecessary in this meal anyway because of the saltiness from the sausages, and I definitely recommend you don't if you are sharing with young children. I would use chipolatas instead of regular pork sausages and on serving, chop your toddlers sausage slices in half so they aren't a choking hazard. Chop the mushroom slices into bite-size pieces and chop through their spaghetti and spinach (if using) to make those more manageable.
I've also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
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Carbonara with Sausage and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 12 pork chipolatas, or 6 regular pork sausages
- 325 g spaghetti
- 250 g sliced mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon mixed herbs
- Generous amount of black pepper, a little salt if needed
- 4 egg yolks, at room temperature (and ideally pasteurised)
- 60 g parmesan or pecorino cheese
- 1-2 handfuls of fresh spinach optional
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wide-bottomed pan over a medium-low heat for a couple minutes. Fry your chipolatas in until cooked through and golden, around 12 minutes, turning often. When done, remove and set aside. Wipe the pan down carefully with paper towel.
- Start cooking your pasta according to packet instructions in large pan.
- Separate the eggs and add the yolks to a bowl and lightly beat with a fork, then stir through the pecorino or parmesan.
- Add the butter to the empty chipolata pan over a medium-low heat and once melted, add the mushrooms, black pepper and mixed herbs and fry for around 4 minutes, stirring every now and then. In the meantime, slice the chipolatas.
- Return the sliced chipolatas to the pan and add the spinach if using. Fry briefly, stirring often until the spinach just starts to wilt.
- Once pasta is cooked, remove a couple of ladles full (about 200ml/1 cup) of the cooking water and set aside in jug. Add 1 tablespoon of this water to the egg mixture and stir well.
- Drain the pasta briefly (you want it a little wet) and add it back into the pan. Add the egg yolk mix, then stir through briefly. Add roughly ¾ of the remaining pasta water, and stir until the pasta is glossy, adding the rest of the water needed. Add in the sausage and mushroom mixture and stir through as best you can before serving.
Baby & Toddler
STORAGE
Nutrition
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