Tortellini Carbonara
One of my favorite classic dishes, Spaghetti Carbonara with a twist, Tortellini Carbonara! Same silky cheesy sauce but with your choice of sweet or spicy Italian sausage and cheesy tortellini.
Tortellini has been such an under-utilized pasta in my house. They’re basically a folded up stuffed pasta like ravioli. The grocery store offers a ton of varieties of sizes and fillings. They’re also great to throw in soups! I find them in the refrigerated section by dairy in my store.
If you’ve been following my recipes for some time now, you know how much I love and use Italian turkey sausage. I prefer the spicy kind, but the sweet is delicious too, and probably a better option if you’re cooking this Tortellini Carbonara for kiddos.
I used a four cheese tortellini but there are so many options so whatever sounds delicious to you would really work just fine. Something else I always recommend is using the good imported block of Parmesan-Reggiano cheese. This should be in the specialty cheese section. It really does make a huge flavor difference in my opinion.
Tastes great as leftovers too! Since I’m always just cooking for the two of us, we always have leftovers for lunch the next day…so it’s a quick way for us know if something tastes just as good re-heated!
Enjoy!
Tortellini Carbonara
Ingredients
- 20 oz cheese tortellini small
- 12 oz hot or sweet Italian sausage turkey or pork
- 1/2 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan-Reggiano divided
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- salt & pepper
Optional add-ins
- frozen peas
- mushrooms
- roasted red bell peppers
- red pepper flakes
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook tortellini according to package instructions to al dente. They cook very fast, so make sure to drop them in the boiling water once everything else is almost ready. Reserve a cup of pasta water before draining.
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While you wait for the water to boil, brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon, along with the onions and minced garlic. Once browned, keep warm on low heat until you toss everything together.
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In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, heavy cream, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese (reserve 1/4 cup for garnish), salt and pepper.
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Once tortellini is cooked, drain and add to sausage mixture. Pour in the egg, cream, and cheese mixture and toss to coat. Once heated through, taste for seasoning, serve immediately. The heat of the pasta should warm the sauce, do not over-heat the sauce or you will get scrambled eggs. Garnish with additional cheese.
