Spicy Chorizo Pasta

By Ali Slagle

YIELD 4 servings
TIME 30 minutes

Macaroni and chorizo is classic Spanish comfort food. While iterations abound, it typically
starts by frying smoked chorizo with a little onion, adding canned or fresh tomato and
maybe some oregano, then letting it simmer into a thick tomato sauce. It’s often topped with
cheese and baked like a mac and cheese (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015824-
baked-macaroni-and-cheese). Instead of fresh tomatoes, this recipe uses highly
concentrated tomato paste, which is made by cooking down tomatoes for ages so you don’t
have to. The paste fries in the chorizo’s rendered drippings for a very fast, silky, smoky and
spicy sauce. When shopping for this recipe, look for Spanish chorizo, a shelf-stable sausage
usually found near salami and other cured meats in the grocery store. Mexican chorizo is
sold fresh and is made with different chiles and spices.

INGREDIENTS PREPARATION

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 pound orecchiette or other
short pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
4 ounces Spanish chorizo,
casing removed (see Tip), if
necessary, and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons double
concentrate tomato paste (or
6 tablespoons canned
tomato paste)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and
smashed
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper
flakes
Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook,
according to package directions, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the
pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
Step 2
Meanwhile, in a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and chorizo over
medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chorizo is crisp and
brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and use a slotted spoon to
transfer the chorizo to a plate.
Step 3
Return the pot to medium heat and add the tomato paste and garlic.
Cook, stirring, until the tomato paste is caramelized and a shade
darker, 3 to 5 minutes, covering the pan if the splattering is wild.
Add the red-pepper flakes and a few grinds of black pepper, then
remove from heat.

Step 4
Add the cooked pasta and ½ cup of the reserved pasta water to the
tomato mixture. Return the pot to the medium-high heat, and stir
vigorously until the pasta is well coated. Add more pasta water until
the sauce is glossy. Stir in the chorizo and season to taste with salt
and pepper.

Tip

Some cured chorizo casings are edible, but if the casings on your
sausage are white and chalky, plastic or especially thick, remove
them before cooking.

PRIVATE NOTES

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