The "almost-a-fortnight-but-not-quite" that I got to spend at home before returning to Great Lakes Theater to remount the Boise production of Richard III had just begun...
We spent all the time together that we could manage... and I was cooking like a mad man!
The first night, I discovered that the Basque chorizo I had frozen to bring back from Boise had thawed... so I needed to use it. There was some thawed chicken in the fridge. These two things got me thinking about paella. But I'd been up since 4:30 in the morning... and knew I'd probably pass out without warning.
But the paella idea was very appealing.
So I decided on an experiment... paella pasta.
I sautéed the cubed chorizo, then added some chopped garlic...
I took that out of the pan, and sautéed the cubed chicken until just barely cooked. I sprinkled on a bit of smoked paprika. I combined the chicken with the chorizo in a sauce pan, added some white wine, a dash of sherry, and a splash of chicken stock...
I let this simmer a bit, tossed in some frozen peas... continued to simmer for 3-4 minutes... and then added in some not-quite-cooked rotini. When the pasta was perfect, I ladled out some portions, topped it with a bit of Parmesan... and we had a not-quite-Spanish, not-quite-Italian, but really delicious, easy dinner...
...in less than 20 minutes.