Chorizo, roasted tomato and spinach pasta
Meat mains
Chorizo, roasted tomato and spinach pasta
A colourful and tasty way to use chorizo as a meat seasoning, crumbled and fried, then added to pasta and spinach with roasted tomatoes. Easy and quick, a great mid-week dinner dish.
Cook's notes
Use cooking chorizo rather than hard sliced tapas style chorizo.
Ingredients
- 400g spinach, washed, leaves stripped from their stalks
- 400g short pasta shape e.g. fusilli or penne
- oil for frying e.g. sunflower or light olive
- 300g cooking chorizo, casings removed, meat chopped or crumbled into chunky pieces
- 450g cherry tomatoes, cut in half, crossways
- a splash of stock or water (use the pasta cooking water for this)
- salt and pepper
Method
-
Step 1
Put 2 large pans of water on to boil, one well-salted for the pasta. Once the water comes to the boil, get a large bowl of cold or iced water ready.
-
Step 2
Add the spinach to the unsalted pan. Cook for 1 min, until wilted. Drain and refresh in the bowl of cold water. Drain again, squeeze out excess liquid and roughly chop.
-
Step 3
Add the pasta to the other pan. Cook according to the pack instructions, until just tender (al dente), while you make the rest of the dish.
-
Step 4
As soon as the pasta goes in, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Add the chorizo and stir-fry on a medium-high heat for 5 minutes, until it lightly crisps up and releases its paprika juices.
-
Step 5
Add the tomatoes and a good splash of stock, or some of the water from the pasta pan. Cook for a further 3 minutes.
-
Step 6
Drain the pasta once cooked, reserving a little of the cooking water. Add the pasta and spinach to the chorizo pan with a little of the reserved pasta water to make more of a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, gently toss everything together and serve.
