Chorizo can come in a soft, ground meat sort of texture, like an Italian, uncooked sausage, or a firmer variety, like a hard salami. Either can work here. If it’s soft, press it out of the casing and brown it like you would ground meat, if it’s hard, remove the casing and cut it into small cubes, then brown those up in a skillet. The flavor will be there either way – the texture just will be different.

A girlfriend who shared this combo with me uses egg yolks, tempered with some hot pasta water and tosses that in with the noodles to get a creamy, silky carbonara sort of texture going. I don’t eat eggs so skipped this step, but 2 yolks should get you there.

The ratios can take ½ lb. to ¾ lb. of pasta, the later should feed you all generously!