redacted recipes: Chorizo and Goat's Cheese Pasta

This is a dish I've been making since I discovered it back in the early nineties. It's my easy fall-back pasta recipe for those evenings when I need carbs, calories and a savoury punch big enough to blow my head off (which is often). It's a pulsating, palate-pleasing riot of spicy, cheesy, herby, garlicky goodness and even though I've been making it for maybe eighteen years I never get tired of it. Well, not for long. You need to like full-flavoured unctuousness to feel the way I do about this pasta, but if you do you're in for a treat.

Quantities are somewhat flexible, as are the types of chilli or olive you use: it's one of those recipes which can be readily tweaked to suit your taste - you may prefer less or more cheese, for example - but here's how I do it.

Chorizo and Goat's Cheese Pasta
Two generous portions

8 oz pasta. This works with spaghetti or ribbon-style pasta but I've come to prefer it with fusilli, penne or ziti. The sauce seems to spread better.

8 oz of chorizo (about 2-3 largish links of the kind shown in the picture: spanish cured chorizo, not that weird uncooked stuff), skinned and sliced to a thickness of ¼" or slightly less

6 oz creamy Goat's Cheese. (Not the "log" style with rind.)

1 Fresh hot chilli, finely chopped or thinly sliced. I like the skinny red type best. And leave the seeds in, you wimp. Heat is good!

About 15-20 pitted black olives, cut in half or sliced. Kalamata olives are good.

2-3 cloves of garlic

½ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dried basil

About 8 or ten roughly torn fresh basil leaves

Good olive oil (at least a couple of tablespoons and maybe rather more. This dish really benefits from a fairly heavy hand with the oil)

Put the olive oil into a large, solid frying pan and get it low-to-medium hot. Get your pasta cooking. You need about ten minutes to get the sauce ready so unless you're using fresh pasta the timing works out perfectly. Throw the chopped chorizo and chilli in, cook gently for 2 or 3 minutes until the chorizo is barely browned. Hopefully you're using good chorizo so the oil will be turning a lovely shade of orange. Note that there's no fierce cooking at any time for this dish. It's more a case of getting the robust flavours of the raw ingredients to come out and play. Turn the heat as low as you can get it and throw in the dried herbs. Give them a good stir. Half a minute later crush the garlic into the mix and stir, making sure everything gets spread around evenly. Try not to moan with delight at the sinful aroma now molesting your nostrils with rough abandon. Oh my, it's good.

Give it a couple of minutes and then add the goat's cheese. Break this up with your spoon/spatula and get it spread around. This takes maybe 2-3 minutes. You need to soften it up enough to coat everything fairly well, but don't melt it to liquid and whatever you do, don't cook it. It needs to be soft and gooey but not totally melted. If a few lumps remain at the end, that's fine. When there's just a minute before the pasta's ready, throw in the olives and basil leaves, give them a quick stir and then turn the heat off and leave it alone. Drain the pasta, throw it into your frying pan and mix the delightful mess around. Get that pasta well coated and then serve it forth.

Couple with a big, full-bodied red and ecstasy awaits.