chorizo, mascarpone and tomato pasta sauce

A tasty, kitchen cupboard meal. These ingredients are usually knocking around in my kitchen or there will be something that I can substitute. To make a vegetarian version of this dish at stage one, saute a finely diced onion in some olive oil, add a tablespoon of hot smoked paprika and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic then continue on with the rest of the recipe. You can either keep the sauce chunky or put it through a food processor before mixing with the pasta.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients
200g cooking chorizo
400g tinned tomatoes or passata
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese or creme fraiche or similar
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
sprinkle of dried chilli flakes (optional)
salt & pepper
200g dried pasta. I used pappardelle.

1. Heat a wide frying pan over a medium heat, squidge the sausage meat or of their casings directly into the pan so that you've got bite-sized pieces. Cook for around 3-4 minutes until crispy and golden and the spicy paprika oils have been released. Don't move around too much unless you want to it break down into much smaller pieces. You can drain the oil off if you wish but it seems a shame to loose so much of the flavour.
2. Add the fennel and chilli flakes and sizzle for a minute. 
3. Add the tomatoes to the pan and simmer the ingredients together for about 5 minutes before you put the pasta on, it should be starting to reduce by this stage. If the tomatoes are whole you will need to break them up a bit with the back of your spoon.
4. Cook your chosen pasta according to the packet instructions, mine took around 10 minutes.
5. The tomato sauce is ready once it is no longer watery and has thickened up and is glistening with little pools of oil. Season to taste.
6. When the pasta is nearly ready stir the mascarpone into the tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. 
7. Once cooked, add in the pasta. If the sauce is too thick for your taste, add a little of the cooking water to thin it out.  Serve and enjoy.

 

Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce

This recipe is a bit of a family favourite, it's no fail and delicious. My sister writes about here.

"This recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I discovered this recipe about 10 years ago via its inclusion in cook book Dishy. 

You need never buy ready made sauce again. This is so fresh, simple, tasty and cheap. A really delicious and helpful addition to your cooking repertoire. 

This recipe serves 6 

Ingredients

2lb ripe tomatoes (deskinned and chopped) 

or 2 large tins chopped tomatoes

5 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half

Salt to taste

1. Put the tomatoes in a saucepan with the butter, onion, and salt.
2. Cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.
3. Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
4. Taste and check for salt. 
5. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta (however I often blend this into the sauce)
6. Serve with freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy!