Creamy, Cheesy Mexicana and Chorizo Pasta

I cook in a few different ways. Sometimes I'll challenge myself to make something new, following the recipe to the letter and buying loads of extra things that I'll never use again. Other times, I'll find a recipe and mess with it until the final result bears no resemblance to the original (but if it makes it on here, it means it totally paid off). And sometimes, I'll pretty much just throw the contents of the fridge into a pan and see what happens.

This recipe, my friends, is the latter. It successfully used up a bunch of stuff that would have gone off otherwise, took hardly any time to cook, and tasted pretty damn good to boot. The thing with experiments is that if the individual components are all nice, then chances are they work together. And if not... well. We just don't talk about those ones.

Creamy, Cheesy Mexicana and Chorizo Pasta

65g cured chorizo sausage

100g Mexicana cheese

90g light Philadelphia (about half a pot)

200g pasta

90ml semi-skimmed milk

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 red pepper

1 bag spinach

1 red onion

6 mushrooms

6 spring onions, chopped

1 red chilli, deseeded

Fresh coriander, to serve.

4 servings / 14 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per portion

1. Cook your pasta according to the package instructions.
2. While the pasta is cooking, prep all your ingredients - chop your vegetables (except the spinach), cut up the chorizo and grate the cheese.
3. Get out a large frying pan or wok and throw in your chorizo, garlic and all your vegetables, except the spring onion, spinach and chilli. The chorizo should release enough oil that you don't need to add any more - just keep an eye on it and stir it every so often so that it doesn't stick or burn.
4. When your onion and mushrooms have softened (about 5-10 minutes), add the Philadelphia and milk to the pan, stirring constantly until they combine and make a sauce. If it's too thick, add a splash more milk.
5. Throw in your cheese and stir until it melts into the sauce.
6. Add your spinach and leave for a couple of minutes until it wilts (I usually pop the lid on to speed it up). Stir into the sauce, then add the spring onion and chilli.
7. Finally, drain your pasta and add to the sauce, stirring until pasta and sauce are all mingled and combined, then dish up.
8. Serve with a big old salad and a hearty sprinkling of fresh coriander.

The Mexicana cheese (this stuff) is what makes this recipe. We had some kicking around the fridge from making one of our many Mexican themed dinners, and I decided to see what would happen if I teamed it with chorizo. And good things happened. All good things. I was actually surprised by how good it was - usually I end up adding a lot of extra seasoning, but it really didn't need it. It made me realise just how many flavours are wound into that cheese - and a bit of a kick, too.

Of course this recipe would work with a normal cheese, but it would be a little bland. Although I'm sure if you threw in a few spoonfuls of fajita seasoning, you could solve that.