Roasted Cauliflower Carbonara
My favorite pasta dish ever! Loaded with crispy bacon, perfectly roasted garlic cauliflower + the best Parmesan sauce EVER.
I make carbonara ALL THE TIME.
Mainly because I always have everything on hand when it comes to carbonara – spaghetti, bacon, eggs, Parmesan – you know, all the important stuff.
But with this wedding diet and all, I need to eat a little bit healthier. Which basically means I’m incorporating some veggies into my already set diet.
You know, the spaghetti-bacon-egg-Parmesan-sauce diet.
So that’s what we have here. Sneaked in cauliflower roasted just beautifully with fresh thyme and garlicky goodness.
See, the wedding diet isn’t too bad, right?
Roasted Cauliflower Carbonara
My favorite pasta dish ever! Loaded with crispy bacon, perfectly roasted garlic cauliflower + the best Parmesan sauce EVER.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces spaghetti
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
For the roasted cauliflower
- 16 ounces cauliflower florets
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
- Place cauliflower florets in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Add olive oil, garlic and thyme; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Gently toss to combine.
- Place into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tender and golden brown; set aside.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; reserve 1/2 cup water and drain well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and Parmesan; set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes; reserve excess fat.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low.
- Working quickly, stir in cauliflower, pasta and egg mixture, and gently toss to combine; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add reserved pasta water, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with thyme, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Simply delicious and so easy to prepare. You will want this dish again and again. Yummy goodness for your entire family.
This was fabulous! i am always skeptic of carbonara recipes but this did cook through with the residual heat and was delicious. The baked cauliflower was amazing and my family (who does not usually eat cauliflower) loved it!
Tried this tonight and oh boy, is it a keeper! Both hubby and myself enjoyed the flavors in this dish. While it would be okay for me as a main dish, hubby never would’ve gone for that! I served it with pan-fried, panko-crusted turkey tenderloin filets, homemade bread and a nice white wine … in one word: DamnDelicious!! Love your recipes — keep ’em coming! Everyone I’ve tried so far has been a winner!
Thank you, Kathy!
We made this last night. I was a little skeptical of the cauliflower, but it added a delicious nutty flavor from being roasted. Helped cut through the saltiness of the cheese and bacon. Only change I’ll make for next time is to add a little pepper to the egg mixture.
Thank you for your feedback!
Wow! This recipe is looking delicious! But it is hard to find fresh Cauliflower that isn’t 10 seconds to rotten. Can I use frozen?
Yes, but I find that fresh cauliflower is truly best here.
do you have any recipes for diabetics low carb and sugar free
Not at this time. Sorry! 🙁
This recipe looks/sounds amazing, especially with the roasted, garlic cauliflower. Will Be on our dinner table Sunday.
Love the idea of adding the roasted cauliflower. Will have to try this (:
Do you think I could use egg beaters instead of eggs?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
This sounded sooooo good…until I got to the raw egg part. Any way to make this sans raw eggs?
If you are skeptical about the raw eggs, it actually gets cooked through completely from the residual heat. Just be sure to work quickly so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs!
I know carbonara is made with raw eggs and have eaten carbonara at restaurants. But doing it myself, trying to make sure raw eggs are thoroughly cooked using residual heat, makes me squeamish. Eggs with runny yolks make me gag too. So I tried using just a little bit of heavy cream instead, because this combination sounded too good not to try. It was more saucy, but still delicious!