Chorizo Pasta Bake

Spoon holding baked chorizo pasta above white baking dish of the same.

5 from 22 votes

Chorizo Pasta Bake is weeknight friendly! Smoky chorizo, al dente pasta, tomato sauce. Quick. Easy. Delicious. So cheesy.

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: chorizo pasta bake

Servings:

Calories: 368kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Pasta Bake

2 chorizo sausages thinly sliced, Note 1
4 cups dried fusilli pasta Note 2

Tomato Sauce

1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
½ large onion peeled and diced
1 tbs garlic chunky, minced
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
700 grams/24.5 oz passata Note 2
400 grams/14 oz diced tomatoes Note 3
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce Note 4
1 teaspoon dried parsley Note 5

Cheese Topping

½ cup mozzarella cheese grated using a hand held or box grater
½ cup tasty cheese grated using a hand held or box grater

Garnish (optional):

basil leaves
black pepper

Instructions

Preheat your oven: to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
Baking dish: spray a large baking dish with cooking oil and then set aside.
Chorizo sausages: place a large saute pan on the stove, add the sliced chorizo pieces and fry for 3-4 minutes. Once done, transfer the cooked chorizo to a paper towel lined bowl.
Pasta sauce: without rinsing or cleaning the pan, add the olive oil, diced onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook these for 1 minute, stirring as you go. Then turn the heat to low and add the tomato passata, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and dried parsley. Stir to combine and let simmer.
Pasta: read and follow the instructions on the fusilli to cook it in a medium saucepan of boiling salted water. When it cooks till al dente (Note 7) use a colander over the sink to drain the pasta and discard the water.
Combine: next add the sliced chorizo to the pasta sauce and stir to gently fold these in.
Pasta and sauce: then add the drained fusilli to the combined chorizo tomato sauce and stir till these are consistently mixed together.
Into baking dish: next transfer the combined pasta, chorizo and sauce mixture into the oiled baking dish. Use a saucepan to push the mixture into the corners and the back of the spoon to smooth the surface layer.
Cheese topping: sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top of the dish and follow this by sprinkling the tasty cheese over the top.
Oven bake: place the baking dish into the preheated oven on the middle shelf. Allow the pasta bake to cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
To serve: once the cheese has melted and turned golden brown use oven mitts to remove the baking dish and place it onto a heatproof surface. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and black pepper. Provide bowls, forks and spoons, portion and serve.

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Chorizo: when cooking the chorizo sausage, use a non stick frying pan and omit any oil. The fat from the sausage will render out enabling the frying process to unfold as it does.
Note 2 - Fusilli pasta: a standard box of this pasta is 500 grams or 16 oz. However, that amount combined with the chorizo and tomato sauce won't all fit into a standard large baking dish. Hence we measure the pasta before we cook it and use 4 cups. This combined will fit into the baking dish.
Note 3 - Passata: in some countries this is known as tomato puree. It is smooth and thick and excellent to use in either pasta or pizza sauces.
Note 4 - Diced tomatoes: opt for plain diced tomatoes without any additional herbs or flavors in the tin. This allows ourselves to create the flavor combination without any unwanted or known extras. You can use crushed tomatoes in place of the diced tomatoes.
Note 5 - Worcestershire sauce: this gives a little oomph to the sauce. Give the bottle a shake before you use it as some brands have a little graininess about them which sits in the bottle if not shaken.
Note 6 - Dried parsley: you can use dried oregano, dried basil or Italian herbs (equivalent amount) as substitutes.
Note 7 - Fusilli cooked pasta: whilst we predominantly cook the pasta on the stove, it does keep cooking a little in the oven. For this reason, we want al dente (pasta with a little chew about it) once we drain it from the stove. To achieve this, test a piece just before the cook time indicated for example 8 minutes, test at 7 minutes) and if it has that chew, drain and stop there. We don't want to over cook it as it becomes mushing. So less is more in this case.

Nutrition