Cavolo, Kale and Chorizo Rigatoni

I have entirely neglected the blog, for a year or so.  It is frightening to think how rapidly the time has slipped through my fingers.

Although I have not been checking in on here, I have been cooking away, preparing every meal from scratch and, when I remember, have been jotting things down for a couple of cookbook projects, which I hope one day to actually pull off. We moved the kids to another school in September so it has been a year of adjustments for all of us and a year for the blossoming of surprisingly lovely friendships.  I think I have some kind of addiction to checking my phone, which massively eats in to my time to actually achieve anything significant, the main culprits being Instagram and Facebook, I fall down that rabbit hole and whole hours just vanish!

One small request via instagram a day or so ago, to share this recipe following a snap I shared on there, seems like a perfect opportunity to convert some of that listless cyber meandering into a real connection and get back to food-inspiration.  So here goes.

This can be made with basically any brassica (kale, cavolo nero aka tuscan kale, broccoli etc.) that you have to hand and any high quality Mediterranean sausage, as these tend to be less rubbery and no gristle or bread crumbs in their mixtures and have a more granular texture when fried off.  This makes for easier distribution of the sausage over the pasta. This recipe is also GREAT with fried anchovies and garlic instead of sausage if you prefer, and it is what I had intended to make it with the day before yesterday until I realized I had no jar of anchovies to hand.  Essentially the fried fish or meat protein is what lends it the fabulous umami element.  You can get something almost as good by frying capers, tempeh, seaweed and adding tamari but it ends up tasting much more asian so you might as well change the pasta to noodles otherwise Italians will start lining up with axes to grind. These ingredients are what I had to hand, and the meal took approximately 15 minutes to make AND eat!

Cavolo, Kale and Chorizo Rigatoni

This can be made with basically any brassica (kale, cavolo nero aka tuscan kale, broccoli etc.) that you have to hand and any high quality Mediterranean sausage, as these tend to be less rubbery, contain mercifully little or no gristle or bread crumbs and have a more granular texture when fried off. This makes for easier distribution of the sausage over the pasta. These ingredients are what I had to hand, and the meal took approximately 15 minutes to make AND eat! In the past I have fried garlic and chilli etc. with the sausage but I found that the chorizo had so much of its own flavour and garlicky power that this was unnecessary, which is great when you are in a hurry. I also like the brand of chorizo called "Unearthed" as it does'nt contain a pile of nitrates and is relatively lean. The only reason I did it with chorizo is that I realized I had no jars of anchovies to hand.
This recipe is GREAT with fried anchovies and garlic instead of sausage if you prefer. Essentially the fried fish or meat protein is what lends it the fabulous umami element. You can get something almost as good by frying capers, tempeh, seaweed and adding tamari but it ends up tasting much more asian so you might as well change the pasta to noodles.

Persons

4

Ingredients

• 200g good quality chorizo, skinned, sliced and diced
• 250g - 400g (according to how virtuous you want to feel), washed, destalked and roughly torn or chopped
• c.100ml (about half a cup) extra virgin olive oil
• 500g pasta in a short, robust shape eg. rigatoni / penne / conchiglie (shells) / orecchiette
• handful of sea salt for the pasta-boiling water

Instructions

1. Put a large pan of well-salted water on to boil for the pasta
2. Get to skinning and roughly hopping the sausage / chorizo, if it is not too compact and firm, it should not require much work as it will mostly dissolve and become crumb-like in texture once the fat in it melts down in the pan. For firmer, leaner sausages, you will need to dice it a little more carefully.
3. Heat up a large, heavy bottomed skillet or sauté pan
4. Meanwhile rinse and shake off and prepare your kale if you've not already done so
5. Throw the pasta in to the boiling water
6. When the pasta has come back to a gentle rolling boil, and you have stirred it to avoid it clumping, throw the chorizo / sausage in to the hot pan and stir-fry it with no extra fat. It will spit off a fair amount of fat and and sizzle away nicely for the first 5 minutes. At some point, depending on how lean it is, you will probably have to add a drizzle of olive oil to avoid it sticking.
7. When the chorizo is golden and crisped and has broken down in to little savoury chunks, put the heat under the pan to max capacity and throw in the kale / cavolo, stirring and lifting rapidly to allow the kale to wilt and be coated in fat and to avoid the sausage underneath burning.
8. Once the kale is evenly coated in the fat, put the lid on the pan and check the pasta for 'doneness'.
9. Drain the pasta when it is cooked al dente, leaving about a cup of boiling water in the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to overdrain it as it will suck all that water back up.
10. Throw the pasta in to the skillet and toss together, pouring in the fresh olive oil and serve immediately.

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