Sunday 3 June 2012

Recipe #19 of NEWrecipes52 ...

Looking for something quick, simple and oh so tasty for dinner? How about Pasta Provencal? I mean, just look at the fabulous array of colours ...


The basic recipe requires the following ingredients:
pasta (fresh or dried)
courgette
red pepper
onion
chopped tomatoes (tinned works best)
garlic
fresh basil

Start by chopping up all the vegetables. I sliced the pepper and courgette, diced the onion and crushed the garlic ...


Throw all the veggies into a frying pan and fry [gently] for about 5 minutes or until the courgettes begin to "give" a little ...


Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some finely chopped fresh basil and season with some freshly ground black pepper ...


Because DH is a meat lover(!), I added in some [pre-cooked] sliced chorizo sausage. Yumm! If you haven't tried chorizo before, I urge you to buy some and try it. It's a spicy Spanish pork sausage, infused with pepper and chillies and when cooked, it produces the most amazingly vivid orange coloured oil, which BTW is great for frying the peppers / courgettes of this recipe in!

Whilst the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta. Spirals work well with this recipe because the sauce gets caught in the groves of the pasta ...


Drain the pasta well, then add it straight into the pan with the sauce. Stir it all together and ensure all the pasta is coated ...


I added another optional extra before serving ... I sprinkled some freshly grated Swiss Gruyere cheese over the pasta / sauce, then put the pan under a hot grill for a couple of minutes, just until the cheese melted.

Serve with a garnish of fresh basil leaves ...


A bowl of this pasta + a glass of chilled pinot grigio wine = food heaven! Seriously good and a recipe I'm definitely going to cook again [& again!]

1 comment:

Soco said...

I'll definitely try this one! And I love chorizo, so I'll add some too! :) In fact, I make this recipe from Kevin & Amanda (http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/spicy-sausage-pasta.html), using chorizo instead of sausage and it's great too! :) Thank you Sue!