Recipe Swap: Campanelle with Chorizo
For this Taste of Home Cooking Blogger's Choice Swap I was given the blog Does Not Cook Well With Others, a blog I had in the swap a while back, so I knew I'd have a lot of good recipes from which to choose.
After narrowing it down to a few, I finally chose a recipe for Orecchiette with Chorizo. Pasta and a spicy chorizo? Yes, please.When I went to the store to buy my ingredients, I could not find Orecchiette. My store carries three brands of pasta, plus the store brand, and they did not have Orecchiette. I chose another pasta shape, Campanelle, which means little bells. So I made this dish with little bells instead of little ears.
Jon and I both really, really liked this one - thanks for sharing it, Coleen! The sauce was so flavorful, the sausage added just the right amount of kick, and the veggies added some nice texture. The only change I made, besides using a different pasta shape, was to also add some chopped green pepper only because I had half of a pepper to use up before it went bad.
Here is the recipe with my changes in italics. The recipe below will make 4 servings.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces orecchiette pasta (or a similar shape - I used campanelle)
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 ounces fresh chorizo, casings removed
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced (separate dark green parts from the white and light green parts)
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- Added: 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- Fill a large sauce pot with water, and set it over high heat. Once it's boiling, add salt to the water, then add the pasta, and cook according to package directions. When done, reserve one cup of pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chorizo and cook for about three minutes, breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon, until it's starting to brown.
- Add the white and light green parts of the scallions to the skillet, and cook for three minutes, until softened, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic, peppers, and the mushrooms, about ½ tsp salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 3 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and brown.
- Add the tomato halves to the skillet, and cook until starting to soften, about another 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth to the skillet and heat for a minute. Stir in the pasta and the cheese, adding some of the reserved pasta cooking water if the pasta sticks together (I didn't have to add any water). Season with salt and pepper, then toss to combine.
- Serve topped with reserved dark green parts of the scallions and grate some Parmesan cheese over, if desired.
