Pasta with Chorizo and Spinach

Today is the end of the holidays. They’ve been very intense for me. In every way. But unforgettable too. Above all, for the time spent with Ninka. I already mentioned it in the previous post (when was that?), which was also about pasta, with spinach and gorgonzola. Our holiday trip to an Italian paradise, that is.

I was a little worried about Farneta, a country estate in the middle of nowhere, right in the heart of Tuscany. Especially since I found it just a few days before we left, after my booking somewhere else was cancelled. But it turned out to be… Just as it should have been. Wonderful. And these were definitely my best Italian holidays so far.

Most importantly to me, Ninka is just as happy about them as I am. Really, that’s all that matters.

Unfortunately, amid all that bliss, I never managed to do what I’d promised somewhere along the way: a food report from Italy. Of course I cooked, but mostly things you already know, and mostly very simple food. So after coming home, I had to stop cooking for a while (though I suspect it still hasn’t been long enough), because all that Italian pasta had made me expand… in every direction.

But today I had a relapse, and although this pasta isn’t particularly Italian, since the chorizo is Spanish, however you look at it, it’s still pasta. Pasta so simple that even after a whole day of this hellish Polish (sic!) heat, even I felt like making it. So I recommend it!

PS

Somehow I haven’t got much energy for writing, but I think that’s because I miss our Farneta. Hardly surprising, is it 😉

Recipe at a glance:

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves: this portion is for one person

Calories: I haven’t got the energy to count them today

Ingredients for holiday-inspired pasta:

• a 10 cm piece of chorizo
• 1 small white sweet pepper (the pale kind most often used for leczo 🙂
• half a small pink tomato
• 3 handfuls fresh spinach leaves (preferably sold loose by weight)
• a small red onion
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 handfuls pasta (I chose penne)

Recipe for pasta with spinach, chorizo, white sweet pepper and tomato:

I cooked the pasta al dente (about 9 minutes for my penne). I did everything else while the pasta was cooking.

I heated olive oil in a frying pan and added the diced chorizo sausage. I added the diced red onion and white sweet pepper. I fried everything over a low heat (setting 4 on a scale of 1 – 10 on my induction hob) for about 4 – 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. The chorizo should turn the oil a lovely red.

I trimmed the spinach (mine still had its roots, wonderfully fresh spinach sold loose by weight :), washed it thoroughly and blanched it (by pouring boiling water over it, followed by cold water).

I diced the tomato and added it to the chorizo and vegetables in the pan. I gave it a gentle stir. I added the cooked pasta, sprinkled it with a pinch of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. I mixed it all together and added the blanched spinach leaves. I stirred once more and took it off the „heat”. Done. Enjoy!