Sausage Carbonara

This is a fabulous recipe from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy' cookbook.

It says quality Italian sausages... I make it with whatever sausages I have (usually Cumberland).  And it says to take the sausage meat out of the skin...that's way to faffy for me, so I don't ;-) I just cut the sausages into chunks.

It says pancetta...I have made it with bacon.

It says zest of a lemon...having a hubby that can detect fruit of any kind at 20 paces, I leave this out and it doesn't seem to affect the flavour.


Sausage Carbonara

Ingredients

4 quality Italian sausages
olive oil
2 slices thickly cut higher-welfare pancetta, chopped
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
320 g dried linguine
4 large free-range egg yolks
100 ml single cream
50 g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Zest of 1 lemon
1 sprig fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
extra virgin olive oil

Method

With a sharp knife, slit the sausage skins lengthways and pop all the meat out. Using wet hands, roll little balls of sausagemeat 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!