Paccheri Rigatai with Chorizo de Leon

Paccheri Rigati with Chorizo de Leon and Mahon cheese

 

A fantastic way to bring Italy and Spain together on a plate.   The warmth of this dish really brings the Mediterranean sun into your home.  Great for sharing with friends and so easy to size up for parties to serve cold alongside other treats.

Ingredients:

250 grams of Paccheri Rigati
220 grams of chorizo, 1/2 cm (or slightly less) slices, the chorizo is only a couple of cm thick
500 mls of passata
25 grams of lovage, roughly chopped
three small to medium red and green peppers, thickly sliced
five small onions, quartered
five small aubergines, halved lengthwise
125 grams of Mahon cheese, thinly sliced
100 mls of cold water
50 mls of olive oil
50 grams of sun dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
100 grams of roughly chopped Spanish olives

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 c

Cook your Paccheri Rigati in salted boiling water for only half the 10-12 minutes it normally takes, drain and use half your oil to coat the pasta and leave aside.

In a large, hot frying pan, add the remaining oil, the onions, chorizo and peppers, until the chorizo has started to release its spicy treasures, the onions have started to brown around their edges and the peppers have started to soften only slightly. 

The aubergines go in next and these are added to just warm through.  Set the pan aside and retrieve a large oven proof dish, about five centimetres deep and 25 to 30 centimetres square/oblong.  Add the pasta and the chorizo/vegetable mix to it along with the passata which has been combined with the cold water.  Mix well and add the olives, lovage and sun dried tomatoes evenly on the top.   Arrange the cheese on top of this and place in the middle of the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly before serving.

This should make a generous starter for six, or a main course with braised lettuce for four. Also, incredibly good cold with sour cream on the side.