Chorizo, Vegetable & Mozzarella Pasta Bake

As you all know or can tell from my previous posts I have a great love of Chorizo, Aubergine, Cheese and Pasta and I am always on the look out for a new recipe combining all these ingredients, so I have pilfered from the great site A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit the following recipe for Chorizo, Vegetable & Mozzarella Pasta Bake, I took on board suggested alterations and combined them to make the recipe below:-

Olive oil

250g Chunky chopped chorizo

2 cloves finely chopped garlic

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 aubergine

350g Penne Pasta

125g Mozzarella ripped into chunks

1/2 cup grated cheddar

Heat oven to 200oc

In a frying pan add the chopped garlic to heated oil, frying for 30 seconds and before burning the garlic add the tomatoes, I then added a teaspoon each of Marjoram and Oregano. Add a little bit of sugar to take the sharpness out of the tomatoes and season. Simmer the sauce whilst you get on with the veg.

I cut the aubergine length ways into 4 and the same with the pepper, popped them skin side down into the frying pan with a dash more of oil and fried them for several minutes until they started to get a blackened skin, then turned them over for a few more mins.

Whilst all the simmering and frying is going on the pasta can be cooked in boiling water until al denté. Once drained mix with the tomato sauce in a baking dish.

Cut the cooked vegetables into bite sized chunks and mix into the pasta.

I lightly pan fried the chorizo to release all the fat from them, but before they got crispy added them to the pasta.

Topped the dish with the mozzarella and cheddar and baked in the oven for 20 mins.

Scummy, not drowning in sauce, the cheese was molten and stringy, the aubergines had a wonderful char grilled flavour.