Baked Penne with Chorizo and Fontina Cheese

In keeping with my commitment to try to use up stuff we have in the refrigerator and freezer, I went looking for a recipe to use up some chorizo left over from a breakfast dish. I don't remember what parameters I entered in my favorite search engine but I came across a recipe for Baked Penne with Chorizo and Taleggio. Or I should say, I came across a recipe that was incomplete, but I didn't realize this until I was actually preparing it. Once I started the cooking process I noticed the directions for the dish were a bit lacking. They didn't tell you when to add the mustard. A few of the other steps and words were missing. So in the middle of making this dish I got out my trusty iPad and started searching to see if I could find a complete recipe. After checking several of the recipes listed, I noticed they were all the same. Somewhere along the line everyone was re-posting the exact same directions with the exact same mistakes (they are easy to spot. Just look for the "Mix in the mascarpone melts" or where it asks for "whole wheat mustard" and you know you have the weird recipe...as far as I know, there aren't "mascarpone melts" for sale anywhere and does whole wheat mustard even exist???).

So glad it wasn't hard to figure out what to do because this dish turned out to be one of our recent favorites, even if I did mess with the recipe. Depending on your mustard or chorizo, you might want to add a bit of spice as I think this needed just a tad bit of hot sauce or cayenne pepper. Otherwise this was good comfort food. A bit rich, so I paired it with a simple salad. But again, very tasty and something I'll make again during the winter months. I also believe other ingredients can be added to this dish but I think you get tired of me always saying that tossing in some bacon wouldn't hurt.

As you can probably tell I used fontina cheese instead of Taleggio (which I couldn't find at the time and which most of the recipes requested). Since I have no idea how Taleggio tastes I didn't miss it in this dish. I'm sure someone out there has the correct recipe somewhere, but I didn't want to spend an hour to try to find it. You can find the recipe I worked with here.

BAKED PENNE WITH CHORIZO AND FONTINA CHEESE

11 ounces penne pasta
8 ounces mascarpone (usually one carton)
2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
2 green onions, chopped
9 ounces fresh Mexican chorizo
8 ounces fontina cheese, diced
salt and ground black pepper
Optional: A teaspoon or more of your favorite hot sauce

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water. Once the pasta is done, drain well and return it to the pot.

Mix in the mascarpone until it melts and has coated the pasta.

Stir in the green onions, chorizo, mustard and fontina cheese and season with the salt and pepper (add the hot sauce or cayenne pepper at this time).

Transfer the mixture into an ovenproof dish.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is crisp and golden brown. Serves 4.

Note: I admit, that I really didn't measure or weigh most of the ingredients. I think I used almost a full pound of pasta and more cheese than the recipe called for.

Note: The original recipe called for "whole wheat" mustard. Since I had no idea what that was I used some Maille Whole Grain Dijon Mustard I had in the fridge.

Note: When I say "fresh Mexican Chorizo" I'm talking about the stuff that looks like ground pork, not the chorizo you slice like sausage. I'm sure the other type of chorizo could be used, just cut it into slices or dice before adding to the dish.

Note: Baking time may vary depending on size of the baking dish. I used a deep casserole dish and it took about 28 minutes for this to be cooked enough and have some browning on top.

Note: Mr. L found this pretty salty. It was perfect for me. Adjust your salt usage according to taste.