This traditional pasta dish goes a little rouge — in a delicious way! Sweet potato carbonara makes use of spiralized sweet potatoes as the main ingredient instead of pasta, so you’ll still be able to twirl and twirl!
I don’t mean to brag, but my pasta carbonara is the bomb. One of these days I’ll post the recipe so you won’t have to take my word for it. I haven’t made it in a while, but I found out recently that it’s quite memorable.
Pasta carbonara is a creamy-without-cream dish that includes pancetta (or bacon), eggs, and Parmesan cheese to give it great flavor. Some people add peas, and some don’t. I love the color they add, so I toss them in!
When I was in Ohio visiting my family recently, I had the chance to meet up with an old friend. At some point during our visit, my pasta carbonara came up. My friend remembered that the first time she had the dish was when I made it a billion years ago!
Even after my visit was over and I was back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about pasta carbonara. This got me wondering if I could make spiralized sweet potato carbonara, because I looooove sweet potatoes!
Why not, right? And apparently I’m not the only one with this thought, since there are loads of recipes for this dish online. (But you don’t have to search any further because this recipe is really tasty! 🙂)
So off to work I started, spriraling (that’s the term, right?) the sweet potatoes and getting excited to dig in. If you don’t own a spiralizer, don’t fret! You can still make this dish with a slightly different type of “noodle.”
No spiralizer = no problem: Use a regular veggie peeler on your sweet potatoes to create wide, fettuccine-like strands like I did for this recipe for chilled zucchini ribbon “pasta” with black olives, roasted red peppers and mozzarella.
This is an easy dish to make, but can be a tiny bit tricky. But don’t let that stop you! The first time I made this, the eggs sort of scrambled a bit and got a little clumpy. It wasn’t a big deal since it still tasted delicious, but it didn’t look so hot. The second time I made sweet potato carbonara, it turned out lovely.
My trick to a successful dish was to add a bit of warm water to the mix. When you make pasta carbonara, you add some of the cooking water from the pasta to help give the dish its creaminess. The same held true for this version.
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I used a spiralizer like the one below to make my sweet potato “noodles.” However, you could use a regular vegetable peeler, too, that will make wider strands:
Sweet potato carbonara is a filling dish that is super flavorful. The colors are fun, too, with the green peas dotting the strands of orange “noodles.”
I hope you’ll give this recipe a try! Let me know how you like it and whether you spiralized your sweet potato or used a veggie peeler to make wide strands.
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Patricia Conte/Grab a Plate
Serves Serves 4
Save RecipeIngredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
- 1/4 cup whit onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- 6 ounces pancetta (or bacon cut into small pieces)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra if needed
- 1/3 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup warm water
Instructions
- Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the sweet potato noodles. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until softened.
- As the sweet potato noodles are cooking, add the remaining olive oil to another large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the onion, red pepper flakes, and half the black pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes, then add the garlic and the pancetta (or bacon). Cook until the pancetta is crispy.
- As both cook, add the eggs to a bowl and beat lightly. Add the Parmesan and the remaining black pepper. Mix well.
- Transfer the noodles to the skillet with the pancetta. Add the peas, toss and turn off the heat.
- After a minute, add the egg mixture to the skillet with the noodles and stir gently, but briskly. Add about 1/4 cup of the warm water and continue stirring until the sauce is smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more of the water. If too thin, add a bit more Parmesan cheese. Toss well to combine.
- Serve warm garnished with black pepper and Parmesan sprinkled on top.
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