Name: Weeknight Chorizo Pasta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 pound rigatoni; 1 pound bulk fresh chorizo (or remove casings from links); 1/4 cup olive oil (divided); 1 large red bell pepper (seeds and stems removed, chopped); 2 large cubanelle peppers (seeds and stems removed, chopped); 1 medium onion (chopped); 6 cloves garlic (chopped); 1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes (blender pulsed); 2 cups reserved pasta water (will not need all of it); salt and pepper (to taste); 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese; 1/4 cup minced flat-leaf Italian parsley

A little heat and tons of flavor come together effortlessly in my easy Chorizo Pasta. The perfect dish when you’re short on time but want something that is both satisfying and outrageously delicious.

Large black pan with spicy chorizo pasta.

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Weeknight spicy pasta

Chorizo is an ingredient I love to cook with but don’t do so often enough. This Spanish sausage is smoky, thanks to the paprika, and is great in dishes like chorizo and eggs and shrimp and chorizo tapas. I love it so much that I decided to pair it with cubanelle and red bell peppers and tomatoes to make a spicy chorizo pasta dish.

Since this dish comes together in about 30-40 minutes, I usually make it on busy weeknights when I want something quick and easy, but it’s great any day of the week.

Recipe Ingredients

All ingredients for this recipe are shown in the pic below and special notes are made in this bulleted list to assist you.

Ingredients shown: olive oil, canned tomatoes, cubanelle peppers, parmesan cheese, fresh chorizo, onion, garlic, rigatoni, and parsley.

Chorizo. I created this recipe to be used with fresh chorizo. I have many pasta recipes that rely on Italian sausage as the main ingredient such as my sausage cherry tomato pasta, but chorizo is the star of the show here. If you absolutely cannot find chorizo, you can use hot Italian sausage, though the flavors are different.
Peppers. I’m using a combination of red bell (not shown) and cubanelle peppers. If you can’t find cubanelles, you can use a green bell pepper as a substitute. If you want a bit more heat, throw in an Italian long hot or two.
Pasta. I’m using rigatoni, but you really can use any pasta you’d like, including linguine, penne, or paccheri.
Tomatoes. Canned crushed tomatoes will make the dish even easier, or you can use canned whole plum tomatoes that you hand crush or pulse in the blender.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

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How to make easy spicy chorizo pasta

Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and heat a large pan to medium-high heat and sauté the chorizo in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until cooked through. Transfer the chorizo to a plate and cover with tented foil to keep it warm.
Add the remaining olive oil and peppers to the pan along with 1/2 cup of water and a pinch of salt. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and steam for 5-7 minutes.

Recipe process shot collage group one showing browning the chorizo, sauteing the onions and peppers, adding the garlic, and simmering the sauce.

Uncover the pan and cook until the water evaporates, then turn the heat to medium, add the garlic, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden.
Add the tomatoes and bring to a lively simmer for 5 minutes, then turn the heat to low. At this point, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to 1 minute less than al dente.
Add the chorizo back to the pan and continue to simmer. When the pasta is 1 minute away from al dente, add to the pan and mix well to coat. Once it reaches al dente, remove from the heat and add the cheese.

Collage two showing adding the pasta and cooking until al dente and removing the pan from the heat and finishing with parmesan cheese and parsley.

If the pasta is dry, add some of the reserved pasta water a few ounces at a time until a creamy consistency is reached. Taste test and adjust salt and pepper, then add the parsley and serve.

Top tip

Save your pasta water. I say this in most of my pasta recipes, but it’s so important, even for this pasta with chorizo. The starchy pasta water comes in handy when you need to just loosen up the pasta a bit, which can become slightly dry after adding the cheese.

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