The Bowl of Awesome

Oh man this dish is so good! The incredible Leopotamus made this for me one night and if I hadn't already been in love with him, I would have fallen head over heels right there and then. Every ingredient in this has its own, unique flavour, and combined in one dish they are just...BOOM! The picture above doesn't do it justice as the lighting in our kitchen sucks, but I can't urge you enough to try it.

your main flavours

The Bowl of Awesome aka Pasta with Chorizo Sausage, Sweet Poatato, Champignons, Olives, Rosemary & Lemon

(serves 2)

• 200 g Pasta (I used Penne)
• 1 Chorizo or any other smoked sausage that is rich in flavour
• 1 small sweet potato
• 100 g black olives
• 5 champigons
• 1 red onion*
• 1 -2 cloves of garlic*
• rind and juice of 1 lemon
• 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 50 g feta cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
  

*I can't eat garlic or onion so I use the oil you get from frying the sausage to help deepen the flavour. Instead of frying the onion and garlic in olive oil as described in steps 3& 4, I place the sausage in a clean non-stick frying pan. The heat will soon melt the fat inside the sausage, leaving you with plenty of oil to fry up the champignos and olives. Once the sausage is cooked through I take it out of the pan and put it aside for later use, then add my rosemary & lemon and continue with step 5 listed below.

1. Heat up your oven to 180° celsius. Peel your sweet potato and cut it into thin strips about the lenght of your pinkie. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with olive oil and leave in the oven until soft and golden brown.
2. In the meantime, bring water with a pinch of salt to a boil and cook your pasta.
3. Chop your red onion into largish chunks, then fry up with a bit of olive oil until they're getting soft and glassy.
4. Add your garlic, then lower the heat to medium as garlic gets really bitter when it burns. Grate your lemon (you're going to use the rind first) and pick the rosemary needles off the sprigs , then add those two ingredients as well. Mmmh that smell!
5. Add your diced champigons and olives and cook until champignons are slighty browned and cooked through.
6. In a seperate pan, cook your sausage. It doesn't matter whether you chop it up before or after frying, but if you're using the whole sausage make sure to give it a couple of pricks with a fork or it'll explode.
7. By now your sweet potato and pasta should be done. Take them out of the oven / strain respectively.
8. Add your pasta and sausage to the mix in the large pan and. Add salt and pepper, then douse with juice of 1/2 lemon and add a little more olive oil giving everything a good stir. Now you're almost done!
9. For the final step, place your dish in a large bowl or on a deep pasta plate, top with your sweet potato and some crumbled feta cheese & enjoy!