Olive Garden Spaghetti Carbonara is quick and easy to make. It has a cream-based sauce enhanced by bacon. It is a lot like Alfredo Sauce, but with an extra kick.
Olive Garden Carbonara
Olive Garden is known for its delicious Italian-style food. While it isn’t entirely authentic Italian food, it is made fresh every day, and it tastes completely delicious.
One of the most popular dishes that they serve is their take on Spaghetti Carbonara. Their version of the sauce differs from the traditional Italian version, as this one is a creamed base sauce.
Quick and Easy Pasta Dinner
Best of all this dinner takes about 20 minutes or so to prepare. You can make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
This dish is perfect for dinner on a weeknight because it can be put together quickly, and it is hearty enough to make a good solid meal.
To make this a complete meal I like to serve this up with a garden salad and perhaps some garlic bread.
Recipe Ingredients
Olive Garden Spaghetti Carbonara is made with very basic ingredients. So be assured that you can find the ingredients you will need to recreate this dish at home. You don’t need to worry about finding anything that is too exotic.
Here’s a list of what you need:
- All-purpose flour
- Butter
- Milk
- Ground black pepper
- Salt
- Thick cut bacon
- Olive oil
- Sliced fresh mushrooms
- Scallions
- Spaghetti
- Fresh parsley
- Shredded Parmesan cheese
- Fontina cheese
How to Make Olive Garden Spaghetti Carbonara
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Add milk, salt, and pepper. Whisk until mixture barely comes to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, whisking until the sauce thickens.
- Add the Fontina cheese into the sauce and stir until it melts into the sauce. Keep warm.
- Cook bacon until crispy, drain, and into small pieces.
- Add bacon to the sauce.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add sliced mushrooms and minced scallions and sauté until mushrooms have softened.
- Add the mushrooms and scallions to the sauce.
- Cook spaghetti according to the package directions, drain it well, and add it to the sauce.
- Add parsley to the sauce.
- Stir everything together and transfer it to a serving dish.
- Sprinkle Parmesan cheese all over the top and serve it immediately.
I hope you give this recipe a try soon. Pasta carbonara is always on my shortlist of recipe ideas because the ingredients are easy to find. And this recipe can be made and on the dinner table in a very short time.
More Olive Garden Copycat Recipes
- Asiago Tortelloni
- Capellini Pomodoro
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Fried Mozzarella
- Olive Garden Breadsticks
- Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo
- Olive Garden Pizza
- Olive Garden Shrimp Scampi
Favorite Italian Recipes
Check out more of my easy Italian recipes and the best Olive Garden recipes here on CopyKat!
Olive Garden Spaghetti Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 quart milk
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ounces Fontina cheese freshly grated
- 18 ounces bacon extra thick cut
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 12 ounes sliced fresh mushrooms
- 6 tablespoons minced scallions
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 2 teaspoons fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Melt butter in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Add milk, salt, and pepper and stir vigorously with wire whisk until mixture barely comes to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, whisking frequently while sauce thickens.
- Add the Fontina cheese into the sauce and allow it to melt into the sauce. Keep warm.
- Cook bacon thoroughly and drain on paper towels.
- Cut bacon into 1/4-inch pieces.
- Add bacon to sauce and stir to combine.
- Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.
- Add sliced mushrooms and minced scallions and sauté until mushrooms have softened and golden.
- Add mushrooms and scallions to the sauce.
- Cook spaghetti according to the package directions.
- Drain the spaghetti well and add it to the sauce.
- Add parsley to the sauce.
- Stir everything together and transfer the mixture to a serving dish.
- Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and serve immediately.
alberta
I have made the olive garden salad dressing, it is so darn good,my husband wants it all the time now, he even got into making it, I just found your web site and I cant seem to get off it, I just love it…thank you so much ,,alberta
stephaniemanley
I am glad to hear you enjoyed the salad dressing. Let me know what other recipes you might like.
home chef
Hmmm, this seemed to have too much milk added to it. I think I’ll add Fontina cheese next time too like someone else suggested.
stephaniemanley
Great idea.
Bryson Christy
Technically real carbonara has no cream it
is eggs
MaLinda
Carbonara is supposed to have egg in it. If it doesn’t have egg, its not carbonara.
stephaniemanley
MaLinda, I don’t think the Olive Garden is always “authentic” Italian food, its close. I don’t name recipes, I just try to duplicate them.
Ken
Carbonara means charcoal maker. Traditionally it was made by the men making charcoal for Italian kitchens. They used what they had on hand so yes it was eggs. This is very close to Olive Garden’s recipe. I know, I was an O G general manager and won a local chefs cook off with this dish. To use raw eggs I a restaurant setting would be asking for disaster. I came looking for this recipe. Thanks
Ashley_niceley
I used to work at the Olive Garden and the sauce they used was a Fontina sauce including Fontina cheese. This recipe is close, but to be even closer you would need to put grated Fontina cheese in the white sauce.
stephaniemanley
Thank you for the suggestion.
Nicky Deliz
OMG! I’m soooo happy to see a carbonara recipe that does not have the raw egg! I have nothing against the recipes that do, but with someone with food allergies (eggs, especially raw egg yolk), it’s great to see a recipe that allows me to enjoy food that normally I wouldn’t be able to eat. THANK YOU!
Stephanie
You know they sell pastuerized eggs at the grocery store, check out the brand safest eggs.
stephaniemanley
I would think that the egg would cook in other sauces.
Liz Nelson
This recipe was so good! My family and I really enjoyed it. It also made the perfect lunch the next day!