Chorizo Pasta

One of the perks of living with a chef (who also happens to be my cousin) is that you pick up tidbits from here and there and try to whip up a quick meal. Now, I may have burnt some onions on more than a few occasions but you can count that as my inexperience.

Last evening, I was trying to think of something simple which I could prepare; something that does not take a great deal of time and can be thought of as a quick fire meal. So, I decided to cook some pasta. Now on a few occasions I had tried different ingredients with my pasta which I will share over the course of the next few days. So I put my thinking cap on this time and decided to test a new style of cooking pasta. I present to you, Chorizo Pasta.

Ingredients:

• Plain Pasta (Please do not use cheese pasta for this meal) 
• Chorizo Sausages: 2 - 4 (Must be thawed thoroughly before cooking)
• Cooking Oil 
• Fresh / Frozen Vegetables like peas, corn, green beans and carrots  
• Pasta Sauce – Plain tomato sauce is the best 
• Pepper and Salt (if required)

Cooking Time: 20 – 30 minutes
  
Serves: 2 – 3 people
 
Steps:

1. Take two cups of water and bring to a boil for cooking the pasta. 
2. While the water is boiling, pour some oil into a frying pan and put the sausages for frying once the oil is hot. The sausages should start sizzling in an instant. If not, then the pan isn’t hot enough for frying yet. Remove the sausages and wait for a while.
3. If the sausages were in the fridge the whole time, there is no need to thaw it as it will be quite soft however if they have been kept in the freezer, then it should be taken out and kept for thawing in the fridge the previous night itself so that all the ice melts away by the time you cook it.
4. Keep turning the sausages frequently so that all the parts of the sausage get fried evenly.
5. When the water has been brought to a boil, put the pasta in it and reduce the flame to a mid-flame. This should be cooked for around 12 – 15 minutes or till al dente.
6. Make sure the sausages have a brownish look (not black) before you remove it from the frying pan. Place the sausages on a plate to cool.
7. Drain the water from the vessel you cooked the pasta in. Use a colander for this purpose. You can leave the pasta in it while the water drains away.
8. While the pasta is draining, you can use the same vessel to cook the sauce. Note: It is always better to cook the sauce or bring to a small boil rather than pour cold readymade pasta sauce over the pasta.  
9. Pour some pasta sauce. Any will do however tomato is the best and it adds a simple flavor to the meal. 
10. Keep stirring the pasta sauce till you see it start bubbling. Once it comes to a boiling point, pour the pasta into the vessel and stir well. 
11. Add some pepper (raw or ground) for added taste. 
12. Stir well until you notice that the pasta has been coated with the pasta sauce. Leave it in the vessel for two minutes and serve hot with the Chorizo sausages. 

My Variation:

That was a simple way of cooking pasta with Chorizo sausages. I wanted to get a more flavorful dish so I decided to try adding some more ingredients. Steps 1 to 9 were followed however there was an addition to step 10.

1. In step 10, I added some of the left over oil from the frying pan which was coated with the flavor of the Chorizo sausages. Tip – Very unhealthy =) 
2. Add a few fresh / frozen vegetables to the mixture such as peas, corn, green beans and carrots. You can pick up a packet of frozen vegetables from the market rather than cutting up all of the above mentioned. 
3. Bring everything to a small boil, add the pasta and stir well so that the entire masala / mixture get spread evenly onto the pasta. 
4. You may also add the Chorizo sausages if you feel like having a Spaghetti and Meatball type of dish or just serve separate as shown in the picture above.

 Enjoy!