What’s on your plate: February

Thistles and Kiwis,

Just before I started to put this post together, I read Deb’s post about chorizo and just had to laugh as guess what I am featuring in this month’s what’s on your plate post….yes, chorizo. Actually, what I am making for Wednesday’s dinner hardly warrants a recipe as such, but here is what I made and what I used.

First up, the sausages, which in this case were these Argentinian chorizo from El Jefe Meats, made from beef, pork, red wine, garlic and herbs. I noticed that they also make an Uruguayan chorizo (which is where the owner comes from) which is just pork, and from the picture looks a bit more like how I imagine chorizo to look like. Anyway, I also used tomatoes, tomato purée, basil, crème fraîche, and of course, some parmesan to sprinkle. I used rigatoni for the pasta.

While the water was boiling for the pasta, I prepared the sausage, removing the skin and slicing it up. I have to say it didn’t have the texture I would have expected of chorizo, but it smelled divine. I also chopped up the tomatoes.

I cooked the sausage in a large pan until lots of the fat was released, and then added the garlic. Always be careful not to let your garlic burn as it really doesn’t taste so good! I then added around 2 tablespoons of tomato purée, stirring it well in, before adding the tomatoes, squashing them well down to release all the juice. Finally, I stirred in the crème fraîche, ending with the torn up basil leaves. After draining the rigatoni, I mixed the whole lot up, using a some of the pasta water to help it all come together in a glorious mix.

We had a green salad on the side topped with some red capsicum I had already cooked in olive oil as I think it tastes better that way rather than just raw.

Verdict: the sausage was excellent and full of flavour, and went so well with the pasta. The sauce was nice and creamy, and all in all a good dish for midweek. I would definitely get those sausages again, and would be tempted to try the Uruguayan one too.

This well be entered in the What’s on Your Plate blog challenge hosted by bloggers Widow Badass and Retirement Reflections. This goes live on the first Wednesday of each month and you can join in too with a food related post, just by adding yours to their linkup.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.co

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

27 Comments

  2. What a serendipitous recipe to feature Barbara, it looks delicious! I’m having my chorizo risotto tonight using up some of my ‘excess’ chorizo!! Glad you enjoyed my post and thanks for linking to it too!

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  13. I love that this sausage maker offers Argentinian as well as Uraguayan varieties – I would imagine the spicing would be excitingly different. Next time I am in the store, I will look to see if the specialty butchers distinguish their chorizos.

    Both the salad & pasta look delightfully colourful & delicious, as your food images are always!

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