Chorizo Carbonara

Ingredients:

• 1 pound bulk/loose/casing removed chorizo sausage
• 1 large red onion - chopped
• 8-10 cloves of garlic - chopped
• 8 oz. baby bella/cremini mushrooms quartered
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1 pound prepared spaghetti squash - holler if you need help here
• 1/3-1/2 C white wine
• 4 eggs
• 1-2 C grated parmesan cheese
• 2t dried cilantro
• salt & pepper to taste
• lime wedges for serving

Servings: Russ - 1, Mortals - 4?

 

 

 

 

Directions:

Heat large cast iron* skillet or dutch-oven over medium heat, 3 minutes or so.

Add bulk chorizo sausage and break up with wooden spatula. Continue to cook and break up until the fat starts to release, then add garlic, red onion, and mushroom one at a time. Mix thoroughly to coat everything in the chorizo 'juice'.

Continue to cook and stir in order to brown everything. While cooking, combine eggs, parmesan, and cilantro in separate bowl and beat/mix together.

Continue cooking till things start sticking to the bottom/browning, if that doesn't seem to be happening just crank up the heat to med-high. At this point add the raisins and spaghetti squash. Mix thoroughly.

Add white wine to deglaze the bottom and scrape up any browned bits and mix once again.

Pour egg mixture over top and fold in to once again mix thoroughly. Cut off heat as there should be enough in there already to cook the eggs, as overcooked eggs suck. As the saying goes - done in the pan, overcooked on the plate.

Plate and serve with lime wedges.

I plan on going back to this and experimenting with adding eggplant/jalapenos/different cheeses/etc. Probably tweak the spices too - smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne.....lots of options. As always, recipes should just serve as a jump off point.

One quick easy variation would be to switch the chorizo to Italian sweet or hot sausage and the cilantro to basil.

Walmart of all places - at least in Robinson - has decent bulk chorizo on the cheap. It's from Chicago, where once of the largest Hispanic populations in existence resides. I generally source mine from The Westside Market in Cleveland though - family recipe from my source. You may be able to find some decent stuff in the Strip at Parma or Renya Foods.

Enjoy.

*Anything large will do, I've just fallen in love with cast iron.