Chorizo and Pasta Salad Recipe

This pasta salad recipe is so good you’ll want it on its own for dinner, but it can easily serve as a side dish for barbecued meat too. With sweet cherry tomatoes and tasty chorizo, its combination of flavours and textures is really satisfying.

You’ll need to roast the chorizo and cherry tomatoes for a little while first – and the red peppers if you decide not to use them from a jar - but other than that and boiling the pasta, there’s actually very little cooking in this pasta salad recipe.

This recipe makes enough to serve eight, so it really will stretch to feed a crowd and you can box up any leftovers for lunch. It’s a quick and easy meal that the whole family will want again and again.

HOW TO MAKE CHORIZO AND PASTA SALAD

Ingredients

• 400g (14oz) conchiglie pasta (or use penne if you like)
• 250g pack mini cooking chorizo
• 250g (9oz) cherry tomatoes
• 2 roasted red peppers (from a jar is fine)
• 1tbsp sherry vinegar
• handful fresh basil

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200 C, 180 C fan, 400 F, gas 6. Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until tender. Meanwhile, put the chorizo and cherry tomatoes into a roasting tin and cook for around 10 to 15 minutes until cooked through and crispy on the outside. Reserve the oil. Leave to cool.

2. Drain the pasta and add a little oil to stop it sticking together. Roughly chop the peppers. To assemble, mix together the chorizo, tomatoes and any oil from the roasting tin with the pasta. Stir in the peppers and sherry vinegar. Season then scatter over some fresh basil.