Pasta with Chorizo and Saffron-Puya Chile Cream

Pasta with Chorizo and Saffron-Puya Chile Cream

by Dawn Harmon

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a Chopped fanatic. I never have any fewer than 20 episodes on my DVR. So it's no surprise that inspiration for my one of my Marx Foods Challenge dishes came from there!

I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out a new way to use saffron; I mean, paella to me is the most obvious. But last week I saw a guy make a saffron-infused cream sauce on Chopped so I had to try it! This dish is pretty much a Latin take on Italian food – pasta, meat, cream sauce. But I LOVE what saffron and a chili can do to a simple cream sauce! This really is an easy recipe and provides a lot of flavor with only a few ingredients! The most important thing to remember is not to go crazy on the oil; chorizo is natural oily so you don’t want your sauce floating in grease! The saffron combined with the chorizo’s own oil will give the sauce a beautiful orange color too!

1 link chorizo, casings removed and cut into chunks

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

½ cup heavy cream

2-3 Marx Foods Sargol Saffron Threads

1 Marx Foods Dried Puya Chili

2 cups cooked pasta (I used small penne.)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1: Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and puya chili, and cook for 1 minutes to infuse the oil.

2: Add the bell peppers and chorizo, cook until the chorizo is thoroughly cooked (approximately 5 minutes).

3: Add the tomatoes and sauté for 1 more minute.

4: Add the cream and saffron, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. (P.S. If you like a thicker sauce, you can add some arrowroot powder or a cornstarch slurry here!)

5: Season the sauce with salt, remove the chili, and serve over pasta.