Pasta with shallot, chorizo and tinned tomato sauce

June 3, 2024

Pasta with slow-roasted shallot, chorizo and garlic sauce.Katrina Meynink

easyTime:1-2 hoursServes:4-6

Slow-roasted eschalots do ungodly decadent things to anything they lend their flavour to, bringing depth, silkiness and caramelisation. Here, when combined with smoky chorizo and a head of garlic, a very simple tomato pasta sauce is levitated into the stratosphere.

To minimise midweek mayhem, I often make the sauce at the weekend or when time is on my side, so it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice. It will keep for at least a week covered in the fridge or a few months frozen.

Ingredients

500g paccheri pasta

Sauce

3 tbsp olive oil
2 fresh chorizo sausages (about 250-300g), skin removed, meat chopped
10 eschalots (French shallots), peeled and halved lengthways
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
800g can (or 2 x 400g cans) finely chopped tomatoes
pinch sugar
parmesan, to serve

Method

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 160C fan-forced (180C conventional).
Step 2
Add the chorizo, eschalots, garlic and a very, very generous lug of olive oil to a roasting dish. Season generously with sea salt flakes. Pop in the oven and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until everything is cooked through and golden.
Step 3
Squeeze the garlic cloves out and discard the peel, then add the remaining sauce ingredients, except the parmesan, to the tray and give everything a good stir. Return to the oven while you bring a large pot of water to the boil.
Step 4
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente, following the packet instructions. Strain and add to the roasting dish of sauce, and turn gently to coat the pasta in the sauce. Transfer onto plates and season generously with parmesan, salt and pepper before serving.