Spaghetti with Spanish flavours

1. step 1
2. Put a pan of water on over a high heat to boil. Meanwhile, snip the chorizo into strips with scissors, and chop the parsley and peppers (check for stray seeds first).
3. step 2
4. When the water is boiling briskly, add the spaghetti with a good measure of salt, stir and return to the boil. Cook for 3 minutes.
   3 minutes
5. step 3
6. In a large frying pan, heat the oil, add the chorizo and peppers and plenty of black pepper. Cook for a minute or so, until heated through and the juices are stained red from the paprika in the chorizo. Scoop half a mugful of pasta water from the pan, drain the remainder and tip the spaghetti into the frying pan.
7. step 4
8. Add the parsley and parmesan, toss well and splash in the pasta water, to moisten. Hand round extra parmesan at the table.

Cooking notes

When scaling protein-led dishes, weigh the meat rather than counting pieces, and remember that the pan size limits how much you can sear at once.

For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.

When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.