30 Jan chorizo pasta + chorizo hash
These recipes first appeared in The Irish Independent on January 15th
Chorizo is a hurried cook’s best friend. It’s remarkable how these smokey, paprika-packed pork sausages add an instant flavour injection to whatever dish they meet.
This week, we’re using it to flavour our very simple pasta sauce. Having a simple pasta sauce in your cooking artillery is an absolute must for any cook. Reach for a tin of tomatoes instead of a jar of pasta sauce. It’s so easy and the taste is incomparable.
An egg at teatime can often be just the protein pick-me-up you had been waiting for all day. I love breakfast for dinner, especially when it involves chorizo. Add fried potatoes and you’ve got yourself a fried hash that tastes good at any time of day.
Simple Pasta Sauce (serves 2, with seconds)
Ingredients
About 100g of chorizo
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
Salt
Pepper
About 175g of fusilli pasta
To serve
A handful of grated Parmesan
Method
- Heat a large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Roughly chop the chorizo and add to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the chorizo releases its excess oils. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chorizo and set aside on kitchen paper towel.
- Peel and finely dice the onion. Add to the frying pan you were cooking the chorizo in and cook gently in the leftover chorizo oil for 5 minutes, until the onions start to soften. If you feel the pan is too dry, add a little drizzle of olive oil.
- Peel and finely slice the garlic. Deseed and finely slice the red chilli. Add both to the pan and fry for a further minute or so, stirring well.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, brown sugar and a generous pinch of salt and pepper to the sauce. Gently simmer for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.
- Meanwhile, cook the fusilli according to its packet’s instructions.
- Drain the pasta and add it to the frying pan with the sauce. Mix until the pasta is coated with the sauce. Serve hot with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan on top.
Chorizo Hash (serves 2)
Ingredients
Olive oil
About 8 baby potatoes
1 heaped tablespoon of chopped chorizo
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs
To serve
Freshly chopped parsley
Method
- Heat a generous drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
- Chop the baby potatoes into small chunks. Add to the oil and fry for 10 minutes without moving. This will allow the potatoes to brown well on one side. Turn them over and fry for a further 5 minutes on the other side.
- Add the chorizo to the potatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes, seasoning generously with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, poach or fry two eggs to your liking.
- Once the potatoes have browned and the chorizo has cooked through, divide the hash between two plates. Top each with an egg and a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.
* this week’s storecupboard essentials
– pasta – and we’re not just talking penne. There’s fusilli, orecchiette, linguine, rigatoni and farfalle, to name a few. Little Italy is a great Italian grocery in Smithfield in Dublin 7 that stocks a generous range of DeCecco and Barilla. To broaden your pasta horizons, go visit them in person or order online at www.littleitalyltd.com.
– chorizo – this paprika flavoured sausage is the hurried cook’s best pal. Get your hands on some Gubbeen Smokehouse’s chorizo, which is smoked in County Cork by Fingal Ferguson (www.gubbeen.com).
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