Pasta Pronto — cavatappi with chorizo, olives, baby tomatoes and blue cheese

Flavour is the most important thing in a recipe. But looks are important too. And I like a pasta sauce that has good colour while showing off the attractive bits and pieces in it. Like the little tomatoes, olives and specks of red chilli in this sauce, garnished with bright accents of chopped parsley.

The size of the ingredients is quite important in this recipe. Everything needs to be small — the onion, garlic, halved olives and baby tomatoes. This is because the pasta — cavatappi, which are helical tubes of macaroni, nice and curvy — is small too, and the result is pleasing on the eye while being easy to eat. I’d honestly use only a spoon or fork.

When slicing through olives (with stones in them), place the olive on a work surface and, using a small, sharp knife, slice right through, pretending that the stone is not there. The knife will slide past the pip, which will fall into one half of the cut olive. Just remove it and discard, leaving you with two half olives.

I used a nice smokey chorizo for this, and that’s the key to the core flavour of this sauce.

Tony’s Mediterranean sauce for pasta

(Serves 2-4)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 glass of dry white wine

100g chorizo, cut into small bits

12 baby tomatoes, halved

12 black olives, halved, stones removed

2 red chillies, seeds removed and diced small

100g blue cheese

100ml cream

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

A handful of fresh parsley, rinsed, dried and chopped finely

200g cavatappi pasta

Method

Heat the oil in a pot on a moderate heat and add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook gently, stirring, until softened.

Add the white wine and turn the heat up a little. Simmer not too gently until much of the wine has evaporated but there is still some sauce in the pan.

Add the tomatoes and olives, the chopped chillies, chorizo, and season with salt and black pepper.

Add the blue cheese in bits and stir until it has melted into the sauce.

Add the cream, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for all the flavours to come together.

Finally, stir in most of the chopped parsley, leaving some for use as garnish when serving. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed in wares by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.