Pasta with sausage, cream and Parmesan

The ingredients list sounds a bit like pasta carbonara only with sausage, but despite the cream and eggs, it’s not nearly as dense, with a much more sauce-like consistency instead of the sludge that carbonara sometimes becomes. This is one of those recipes where the quality of your Italian sausage makes an enormous difference. We were lucky enough to still have some from Hilltop Pastures in our freezer from the summer market.

Penne with Sausage and Parmesan

Adapted from “The Essential Pasta Cookbook,” a book packed with recipes and photos. I actually paid full pop for this one several years ago and haven’t been disappointed.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound Italian sausage, cut into chunks

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

½ cup white wine

1 cup cream

2 eggs

½ cup grated Parmesan, divided

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 pound pasta, cooked (the original called for rigatoni, which might have been optimal, but we had penne on hand, and that worked fine, as would farfalle)

Method:

Saute onion in hot oil in sauce pan until softened. Add sausage and cook until nearly heated through. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until mushrooms are softened. Stir in wine, raise heat and reduce liquid by half.

Mix together cream, eggs, half the Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper to taste and stir in with the sausage mixture in the pan. Cook for a few minutes, then toss with cooked pasta and serve along with remaining Parmesan.

The original recipe claimed it serves 4, but this is a rare instance I disagree the other way; I would say it serves 6 respectably. Or as respectably as one can get with that much on the cholesterol and carb front.

Rating: With the right sausage, this is really quite nice for the occasional calorie splurge.