In praise of chorizo!

Back in the summer I looked after my neighbours' cat for a time while they were enjoying Spain. I am not generally considered an intimidating person, but this particular cat turns tail and runs at the sight of me! He obviously associates me with being home alone and I am his least favourite person. I am treated with the disdain that I so obviously deserve. So I was very happy when the travellers returned, and was even more happy when they presented me with Spanish sweets and a chorizo!

I was a bit baffled by the chorizo. I have never cooked with one before as I don't usually hang around the deli section of the supermarket. 

I didn't actually keep it on a cupboard door!

Fortunately I spotted this recipe for spicy chorizo and tomato pasta on a brilliant blog called Frugal Feeding. It is very simple and only uses a few ingredients.

Ingredients

100g spicy chorizo

400g carton of passata

1 tbsp smoked paprika

300g pasta

Method

1. Chop the chorizo into small cubes and start to fry gently in a saucepan.

2. Put the pasta on to boil.

3. After a few minutes add the paprika to the chorizo and chuck in the passata. The sauce will be ready when the pasta is cooked.

As well as being tasty chorizo is also a pretty frugal way of eating meat. Since my first encounter I have bought one from the supermarket. The only one I could find was from the "pay a lot more for fancy packaging" range but it was still only £2.25 for 220g which makes the meat in this meal work out at 25p per person. I have been told you can get them in Lidl but I haven't seen one there yet.