penne with chorizo & peas

It's been awhile since I've done any proper cooking; I've either been baking or eating out. And well, my dad has been going insane in the kitchen; he's quite addicted to the pressure cooker and has been boiling and cooking things in it every hour and hogging up most of the kitchen so I'm left with the oven only to do some baking. I tried to share the stove space with him once and nearly ended up in an argument. Thought it best to leave him to it; dad is just as passionate a foodie as I am.

Anyway, did manage to grab hold of the kitchen last Sunday and cooked up a batch of pasta for lunch (with leftovers taken to work the next day). Not to boast but I cook pasta consistently well and if anything, I do a good job of improvising each time.

Recipe has been adapted from The Good Food Magazine '101 Pasta & Noodle Dishes' cookbook. I had every intention to get all the ingredients but at the last minute, decided that I didn't want to trek all over the suburb and made do with everything that was available at Franklins and the grocery shop nearby. Almost half the ingredients have been altered from the original recipe.

Start by cooking 1 bag of penne pasta in a pan of salted boiling water as per the instructions on the pack. Three minutes before the pasta is ready, tip in 100g of frozen peas and cook with the pasta. Whilst the pasta is cooking, split open 6 chorizo sausages and squeeze out the meat.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and stir fry the meat for 3-4 minutes until golden.

Add a pinch of chilli flakes, grated zest of 1 lemon to the meat and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in 1 tbsp of english mustard and 200g low fat cooking cream and simmer for 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta and peas.

Chop up a handful of parsley.

Stir in the pasta and peas into the chorizo mixture. Toss through the chopped parsley.

Serve!

You can add salt and pepper to taste but I found the chorizo already gave the pasta a lot of flavour. If you like parmesan like me, do add a generous serve of it!

This pasta was great taken to work the next day. It reheated well in the microwave and despite the lack of sauce, the pasta wasn't dry at all and remained just as tasty as after I'd cooked it. The light cream is something you can hardly taste and unlike previous cream based pastas I've cooked, the light cream didn't leave an oily mess after being reheated.

So far, every pasta recipe from this book has turned out spot on so if you're looking for a pasta recipe book, do give this one a go!