Sausage Carbonara

If my evening meal were an episode of Friends, the title of this dish would be 'the one that should have been eaten yesterday' or 'what was I thinking trading pasta, cheese, bacon, eggs and cream for muffins?!' Silly me...

If you like pasta carbonara, this is the next level to it, it's oh-so-delicious.

The sausage not just adds extra meatiness to the dish, because depending on the kinds of sausage you use, I used spicy Italian sausages flavoured with chilli, garlic and smoked paprika; you also get an additional instant seasoning to the pasta.

And what I always like when making carbonara sauce is to add lemon zest which gives lightness and balances the cream and parmesan cheese.  One of the things I learned from Jamie Oliver. 

Enjoy...

Sausage Carbonara
by Jamie Oliver
Serves 4

4 good-quality organic Italian sausages
Olive oil
4 slices of thickly cut pancetta, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g dried linguine
4 large free-range or organic egg yolks
100ml double cream
100g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
A sprig of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil

With a sharp knife, slit the sausage skins lengthways and pop all the meat out. Using wet hands, roll little balls of sausage meat about the size of large marbles and place them to one side.

Heat a large frying pan and add a good splash of olive oil. Gently fry the sausage meatballs until golden brown all over, then add the pancetta and continue cooking for a couple of minutes, until it’s golden. While this is cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the linguine, and cook according to the packet instructions.

In a large bowl, whip up the egg yolks, cream, half the Parmesan, the lemon zest and parsley. When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water, and immediately toss it quickly with the egg mixture back in the pasta pan. Add the hot sausage meatballs and toss everything together. The egg will cook delicately from the heat of the linguine, just enough for it to thicken and not scramble. The sauce should be smooth and silky. If the pasta becomes a little claggy, add a few spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water to loosen it slightly. Sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan, season if necessary, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve. Eat immediately!