The recipe
Wash 250g of small potatoes in cold water, then slice them into thick coins. Warm 3 tbsp of olive oil in a shallow pan that doesn’t stick and let them cook over a moderate heat until golden. Slice 600g of chorizo picante sausages diagonally into thick slices, then add them to the pan, letting them colour and lightly brown.
While the sausages are cooking, peel a medium-sized cucumber, cut it in half lengthways and remove and discard the seeds. Cut the cucumber halves into pencil thick chunks then add them to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes.
Wash 100g of small spinach leaves and remove any tough stalks. Shake them dry then add them to the pan. Cover with a lid and cook for 2 minutes, then turn them over the pan with kitchen tongs. As soon as the spinach has relaxed and its leaves are tender, divide everything between 2 plates and serve. Enough for 2.
The trick
The wonderful thing about this quick pan fry is the contrast between the spicy picante chorizo and the cool refreshing cucumber. Introduce the spinach only at the very end of cooking and cook it very briefly. If you add it too early, or cook it for more than a minute or two, it’ll make the potatoes soggy. Keep the heat high for most of the cooking, so the potatoes brown deliciously and the sausages crisp up appetisingly around the edges.
The twist
For a less spicy supper use your favourite butcher’s sausages in place of the spicy chorizo. Tiny cocktail sausages are good cooked in this manner. You could add tomatoes to the pan in place of the spinach. Use the cherry variety, cut in half so their juices mix with the sausage juices in the pan. Cook for a further 5-8 minutes.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@NigelSlater
