Onion, bacon, cream, cheese and mushrooms – this is the wonderful combination of flavours that make up this delectable pasta sauce. Miss just one of these ingredients and it wouldn’t be the same. Serve it stirred through your favourite pasta and watch it disappear!
How to make an easy carbonara sauce: key tips
This sauce is essentially a cheesy white sauce with onion, bacon and mushrooms added.
Begin by frying the onion, bacon and mushrooms and then setting them aside so you can make the sauce in the same pan. Add the butter and flour and then let it cook over medium heat until bubbling. This will ensure that you don’t have any ‘raw’ flour flavour in your sauce.
Next, I find that removing the pan from the heat while gradually whisking in the milk will ensure your sauce is ‘lump free’. Once everything is smooth and combined, return the pan to the heat and continue to stir until the sauce thickens up. Stir through the cheese and the bacon mixture, and you’re done!
Key ingredients in this easy carbonara sauce recipe
The butter, flour, milk and cheese are what makes the white sauce base for this recipe. Use full-fat options for a creamier sauce.
Bacon rashers are delicious fried in the pan and the fat adds loads of flavour. If you prefer less fat, you can swap the 4 rashers for 6 short cut pieces of bacon.
Button mushrooms are a nice size when sliced into a sauce, but you could also use chopped cup mushrooms, which would bring a stronger mushroom flavour to the sauce.
You might also like these 42 easy pasta recipes for lazy cooks. This pasta, pumpkin and spinach bake is a tasty vegetarian pasta recipe to put on your menu, too.
This recipe was originally submitted by carolinebourke257, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.
Ingredients
- 50 g butter
- 50 g plain flour
- 400 ml milk
- 125 g cheddar cheese grated
- 4 bacon rashers chopped rindless
- 1 brown onion finely chopped
- 8 button mushrooms optional thinly sliced
- 50 g butter
Method
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Step 1Add small amount of butter or oil to a medium saucepan and heat on medium.
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Step 2Add onion and sauté for a few minutes.
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Step 3Add bacon and fry gently until partially cooked.
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Step 4Add a little more butter and the mushrooms, if using.
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Step 5Gently fry until mushrooms are soft. Remove mixture from pan and set aside.
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Step 6Add 50g of butter to pan and melt.
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Step 7Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
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Step 8Cook for 1 minute, being careful not to burn it.
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Step 9Add milk and whisk gently until mixture boils and thickens.
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Step 10Add cheese and stir until melted.
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Step 11Return bacon mixture to pan, stir to combine.
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Step 12Serve with pasta of choice.
Equipment
- 1 saucepan
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 whisk
Recipe Notes
How can I adjust this easy carbonara sauce to suit?
For a thicker sauce, use a larger quantity of butter and flour in equal amounts. Add more or less milk to create your desired consistency. If you’d like to add meat, you could stir some chopped barbecued chicken through at the same time you stir the bacon mixture into the sauce.
What pasta is ideal for this easy carbonara sauce?
Really, this deliciously thick sauce will cling to most short or long pastas, from spaghetti and fettuccine to spirals and penne. You might find that children prefer a shorter pasta as the pieces are easier to pick up using their fork.
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