Best Meal Ever

When we get a bit tired of going out and eating at the local restaurants and tacos will not satisfy our culinary needs, we turn to home cooking to keep us going. One of our favorite meals this winter has been a pasta meal created with green chorizo and pesto mixed with tomatoes and green olives.

This is a detailed post explaining how this delicious meal is created.

Pistachio nut chorizo sausage and chopped green olives.

When we decide to make this meal it usually starts on Tuesday when Linda lets me know that she will be purchasing the pesto at the tianguis the next day. At Wednesday's street market, she searches the vendors for the "French Man" that sells the pesto. This vendor usually is located kitty-corner from the Del Sol bodega and you have to get to him early to have any chance of purchasing his basil pesto.  He sells a tomato pesto and a spinach pesto, but the basil pesto is the best and it sells very fast. One container costs about 90 pesos and is enough for two meals. Linda brings it home from her early morning run and we then freeze it for later use.

The whole mixture, ready to serve.

The green chorizo is a specialty item that is made using pistachio nuts and thus the chorizo sausage is a unique green color. Jacquie and Grant introduced us to the pistachio chorizo and we fell in love with its mild flavor. It goes especially well with the "French Man's" basil pesto.

To acquire the green chorizo you must visit the little meat carniceria in the alleyways that connect the downtown Melaque area.  Everyone knows where the alleyways are located and most of the stores there are either meat, chicken or fish markets. The little meat carniceria with the green chorizo is located on the ocean side (places are either located towards the ocean or away from it) of the alley, one shop to the right of the entrance nearest the street where Chely's dad's store is located. It is affiliated with Melaque's "Happy Cow" carniceria but is not the "Happy Cow" across for Chely's dad's store.

Green chorizo is about 40 pesos for two links and we always buy about four links.

Finally, we walk to the "Bus Stop Store" and pick up some olive oil, green olives, and tomatoes. This is our favorite grocery store on this side of the town. Chely's Bodega was our favorite, but it is quite a long walk from our downtown location.

If we are not able to purchase the needed green olives or any other items at the "Bus Stop Store", we walk two blocks away from the ocean to a larger store called Parisany and they usually have what we need there.

Back at home, chop up the chorizo and place it in the frying pan with some olive oil. Cook until well done and a bit brown. Put one bag of elbow noodles in boiling water and cook them. Drain when finished and mix the cooked chorizo into the noodles. Pour half a container of pesto sauce into the noodles and stir. Add the chopped green olives and the chopped tomatoes. When the entire dish is combined fill your plate and top with parmesan cheese. Yum!