Essential · 1 h 15 min · Serves 4
Chorizos in pomarola with mashed potatoes
Illustrative image generated with AI, not a photo of the cooked dish.
Kitchen test pending
The same root as the chorizos in pomarola with saffron rice: fresh pork sausages browned and finished in a homemade tomato sauce with red wine and basil. This version is the one from Argentine home cooking, in a single saucepan and with a creamy mashed potato to dip into the sauce.
The twist is to take the time the sofrito asks for. The onion, carrot and celery are cooked slowly until sweet before the tomato, and the browned chorizos finish cooking inside the pomarola, which takes on their fat and flavor. The mashed potato has butter and hot milk, and nothing else.
Special equipment: wide saucepan with lid; potato masher
Ingredients
Chorizos in pomarola
- 4 fresh pork sausages (chorizos), 180–200 g each
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium carrot, grated or finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 60 ml red wine
- 800 g canned plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon sugar, only if needed
- 6–8 fresh basil leaves
- Fine salt and black pepper
Mashed potatoes
- 1 kg starchy potatoes
- 60 g butter
- 150–200 ml hot whole milk
- Fine salt and a pinch of nutmeg
Finishing
- Fresh basil leaves
- Grated cheese, optional
Method
Chorizos in pomarola
- Browning. Prick the chorizos two or three times with a toothpick. Brown them in the saucepan with the oil over medium heat for 8–10 minutes, turning them, until brown all over. Remove them and leave the fat.
- Sofrito. In that fat, cook the onion, carrot and celery over medium-low heat for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very soft, sweet and barely golden. Add the garlic for 1 minute.
- Sauce. Deglaze with the wine, scraping the bottom, and reduce by half. Add the tomatoes, bay leaf and oregano, season and bring to a gentle boil. Return the chorizos, cover leaving a gap and cook over low heat for 25–30 minutes, turning them halfway, until the sauce thickens and turns a dark, glossy red, and the chorizos reach 72 °C (162 °F) at the center. Taste and, if acidic, add the sugar. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf and add the basil in pieces.
Mashed potatoes
- Cooking. Peel the potatoes, cut them into equal pieces and cook them from cold salted water, at a gentle boil, for 20–25 minutes, until a knife goes in without resistance. Drain and leave them in the pot over the lowest heat for 1 minute to dry.
- Mashing. Mash them with the masher, add the butter and then the hot milk little by little, beating with a wooden spoon, to a smooth, creamy purée that falls in ribbons. Salt and add the nutmeg.
Finishing
- At serving. Have the basil leaves and, if using, the cheese ready.
The dish
Use low, wide bowls or large flat plates, hot. Put a generous portion of mashed potato on one side and make a well with the back of the spoon. Set a whole chorizo, or cut into three pieces on the diagonal, next to the purée, and coat with plenty of pomarola, letting some fall into the well in the purée. Finish with a few basil leaves and, if you like, grated cheese over the purée. Final look: the white, creamy purée, the dark glossy red sauce, the golden chorizo and the green of the basil.
Key points
- Prick the chorizos so they do not burst.
- Cook the sofrito slowly until sweet.
- Finish cooking the chorizo inside the sauce, over low heat.
- Dry the potatoes before mashing and add the milk hot.
- Add the basil off the heat.
Pairing
A young Malbec or a Bonarda. Without alcohol, sparkling water with lemon.
Notes
- Fresh tomatoes: replace the can with 1 kg of ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped, and cook 10 minutes more.
- Reheating: heat over low heat, covered, to 74 °C (165 °F) at the center of the chorizo.