I love to make pasta on a Friday night because it is so easy and delicious. I’m pretty sure I can get a plate of pasta on the table faster than ordering and waiting for food to be delivered. I read somewhere that pasta and risotto are the Italian’s version of fast food because there are so many recipes that are easy to prepare and need only pantry or garden ingredients. This recipe needs a bit of thought because I don’t always have chorizo on hand, but it doesn’t take much time to make if you’re organised.
I love this recipe because I consider the sauce to be part of my vegetable intake, so I serve a bit of pasta with a lot of sauce. I’m pretty sure Stu does the reverse!
Ingredients
- 2 spicy chorizo sausages (dried or fresh), sliced
- 1 large brown onion, diced
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp (or more) chilli flakes
- 2 char grilled capsicums from a jar
- 2 x 400g cans crushed tomatoes
- generous handful chopped parsley
- pasta and parmesan to serve
Directions
- Heat some olive oil in a pan set over a medium heat and add the sliced chorizo. Cook until browned and the chorizo has released the lovely paprika oil into the pan. Once cooked, remove the chorizo and set aside, leaving the oil behind.
- Add the onion to the pan and cook until softened. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for about 30 seconds before adding the capsicum and tomatoes. Blitz the mixture using a stick blender until smooth.
- Add the chorizo back to the pan and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Check the seasoning and add salt, pepper and chilli to taste.
- When the sauce is about done, cook your pasta as per the packet directions. Grate the parmesan and chop the parsley while the pasta is cooking.
- Serve the pasta sprinkled with parmesan and parsley with some additional steamed vegetables if you are feeling really clever.
This recipe freezes well too. I will either freeze the sauce separately, or cook extra pasta and make mini meals to go into the freezer for us to take to work for lunch.
Another tip – if you have any becoming-soggy vegetables in the fridge such as carrot, zucchini or baby spinach, grate the carrot or zucchini and throw in the spinach into the sauce with the chorizo.
Throwing out food is so wasteful and unnecessary if you plan your means and use up food where you can like throwing extra vegetables into a sauce, or stewing or poaching past-its-prime fruit. I try really hard not to waste any food because I would never throw coins or notes into the bin, and food I have bought or grown is no different.
