Easy Mushroom Carbonara

Enjoy an easy mid-week vegetarian meal with this mushroom carbonara.

Tasty, restaurant quality pasta carbonara is really quick, easy and inexpensive to make at home. Admittedly it’s not going to be the healthiest meal of the week, but it will taste awesome and is a great quick meal for busy nights. All in all, it takes about 20 minutes to get this meal on the table.

Purists will argue that this is not a ‘real’ carbonara recipe as it has cream in it, but I’m not a purist, I like to cook what I like to eat. I’ve tried to give amounts for the ingredients, but taste as you go and add as much flavouring as you like, which is how I cook.

The key to its great taste is fresh parmesan, not packet or freeze dried stuff in a jar. You pay a bit more, but because of it’s strong flavour a little goes a long way, and it lasts months in the fridge, so it ends up being good value. You could use low-fat cream, but… the real stuff will taste heaps better and real, whole foods are nice and healthy as part of a balanced diet.

The recipe is for two, so double it or adjust to feed as many as required.

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Yield: 4 serves

Easy Mushroom Carbonara

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Enjoy this quick and easy mid-week vegetarian meal.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

• A good handful of fettuccini
• 400g button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 cup or so of cream
• 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan (or to taste)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to packet directions.
2. Meanwhile, fry the mushrooms in a little oil over medium heat for five minutes or until lightly golden.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
4. Add the cream. Simmer for a minute or two to thicken.
5. Add the parmesan and stir in until melted. Taste and add extra if you like.
6. Take the sauce off the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir the egg quickly and thoroughly.
7. Stir in the parsley and some freshly ground pepper. The sauce should be salty enough from parmesan without having to add any extra.
8. Stir in the cooked pasta. If the pasta isn’t hot enough, put it back on a low heat and reheat slowly stirring, so that you don’t scramble the egg.
9. Serve alone or with a salad and crusty bread and a generous grinding of fresh black pepper.

Notes

The idea here is not to let the egg scramble. You don’t want bits of egg floating around in your sauce, hence letting it cool a little first. The egg thickens and enriches the sauce. The residual heat from the sauce and the pasta will be enough to cook the egg without scrambling it.

Add bacon for a non-vegetarian version.

Add a couple of handfuls of baby spinach if you like for extra veggies.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 356Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 136mgSodium: 447mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 12g

Nutritional information is calculated automatically using the Nutritionix database. Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, serving size or the source of nutrition data. We strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy. We encourage readers to make their own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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