This Prawn and Chorizo Pasta recipe is super quick and easy but absolutely full of flavour. The perfect easy date night dinner.
I know most of my recipes are family-friendly, but if I’m honest, this recipe for spicy prawn and chorizo pasta isn’t something that my kids would enjoy.
They love spaghetti and chorizo and are ok with this level of spice, but the prawns would put them off.
So I’ve written it as a recipe for two instead of the usual 4-6. It makes a great date night dinner if you get a chance to eat alone.
I love eating with the kids, but once a week, we try to eat once they are in bed, so we can have a bit of a date without having to leave the house. I think this is important, especially if you don’t have a chance to get out together too often.
Why Try This Recipe
Well, the first reason to try Pasta with prawns and chorizo is that it tastes great. But there are some other benefits too:
- It’s quick. You can have the whole meal ready in the time that it takes for your pasta to cook.
- There’s not much prep work. You really only need to chop the chorizo, and you are ready.
- Not much washing up.
- It’s really easy.
- You can adapt the recipe easily, making it spicier, adding veg, and even making a creamy tomato prawn and chorizo pasta if you want to.
Ingredients for Prawn and Chorizo Pasta
This is a really easy prawn and chorizo pasta recipe, so you don’t need many ingredients at all. I use:
Spaghetti
Chorizo
Garlic
Prawns – I use little frozen ones, which I defrost before adding (mine are cooked, if you use raw, cook to packet instructions first.) You can add some king prawns too, and I sometimes use prawn flavour tails, which you can see in my photos. These are totally optional, but they are much cheaper than king prawns and taste and look great.
Tomato Puree
Chilli Flakes
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Lemon Juice – Bottled is fine.
Spinach
I find that recipes with chorizo and prawns have loads of flavour, so while I know some people add smoked paprika, I don’t think it’s needed.
I don’t even use olive oil or any other cooking oil. I just fry the chorizo first so that it releases lots of oils, and cook everything else in this.
If you want more veggies, you could add diced red onion and red pepper with the garlic, but it’s not necessary.
We top all of our pasta with parmesan, but this is optional too.
How to Make Prawn and Chorizo Pasta
The best thing about this recipe for prawn chorizo pasta is that it’s ready in about 15 minutes.
This is because you don’t need to make a sauce. The oil from the chorizo, a little of the reserved pasta water and some tomato puree are enough to coat your pasta.
While your spaghetti is cooking in salted water over medium heat, simply fry the chorizo. Add garlic, prawns, spinach, chilli flakes, tomato puree and black pepper in a large frying pan, drain your pasta, stir it in with a little of the water and serve.
That’s it! You just need to make sure your prawns are hot.
You can get full step-by-step instructions for making prawn and chorizo pasta at the bottom of this post.
Best Pasta to Serve with Chorizo and Prawn Pasta
I like spaghetti. It’s cheap, cooks quickly, and looks good.
You could also make prawn and chorizo tagliatelle or prawn and chorizo linguine if you prefer.
Prawn and Chorizo Pasta
Ingredients
- 200 g Spaghetti (Dried weight – or enough for 2)
- 100 g Chorizo (Sliced)
- 3 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
- 150 g Prawns
- 2 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
- Pinch Chilli Flakes
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 100 g Spinach
Instructions
- Cook spaghetti to packet instructions, using well-salted water
- While the spaghetti is cooking fry the chorizo in a large frying pan over a medium heat until the frying pan is coated in the oil it releases
- Add the garlic and fry for 3-5 minutes, stirring often
- Add the prawns, and stir until coated in chorizo oils
- Stir in the lemon juice, tomato puree and chilli flakes until even
- Add the spinach and cook until wilted, stirring often
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain and retain about 50ml of water
- Add the drained pasta and the retained pasta water to the frying pan with the chorizo and prawns and stir in well
- Top with freshly ground black pepper, make sure the prawns are hot and serve straight from the pan
Notes
- I use a bag of small frozen prawns, taking the amount I need out to defrost before adding them to the pan.
- You can also add king prawns, or prawn flavour tails (which you can see in my photos) for a cheaper alternative, but these are optional.
- If you add the pasta, and it’s well coated in oil once you’ve stirred it in, or your pan seems quite watery, you can skip, or reduce the pasta water you add. This is really just so that you can make sure the pasta is coated in flavour and it’s not too dry.
Any nutritional information is given as a general guide only and may not be accurate. The information is provided using an online calculator and is specific to my ingredients. Please make your own calculations if you want precise information.
