Italian | Main Course | Recipes

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

drprerna26June 30, 2018

A very simple and flavor packed pasta which is super creamy, savoury, smoky sweet and absolutely delicious! Even kids will love this pasta sauce!

Roasted red pepper are very  low in  calorie but packed full of nutritional benefits. They can be easily added to a number of dishes, like pastas, soups or salads or may be cut in thin strips and sprinkled over home made pizzas…they taste fantastic in paninis as well!!

Roasted red peppers can be easily made at home or purchased pre-made at  grocery stores. I have used store bought jarred roasted red pepper in this recipe as it saves lot of time and tastes amazing!!

Course: Main  Cuisine: Italian    Serves:  2-3

Ingredients:

• Pasta (any shape) : 4 cups/ Spaghetti : 350 grams
• Butter: 4 tbsp
• Medium sized onions : 2 chopped finely
• Garlic cloves: 3 minced
• Roasted red peppers: 1 jar (480 gms) drained and roughly chopped
• salt: to taste
• Heavy cream: 1/2 cup
• Vegetarian stock cube: 1
• Freshly ground black pepper: 1/2 tsp
• Italian seasoning: 1 tsp
• Basil: 20-25 leaves ( or parsley minced finely)
• Crushed red pepper flakes: according to taste
• Parmesan:  grated 1/4 cup+ extra to serve

Method:

• Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to packet instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining.
• On medium high heat melt 2 tbsp of butter in a non stick skillet.
• Add chopped onion and cook for 1 minute.
• Add garlic and cook until onion is translucent and garlic starts to get a little golden.
• Add chopped red peppers and cook for 4-5 minutes until the pepper is soft.
• Remove skillet from heat and let the pepper and onion mix cool down .
• Transfer the mix to a blender  and puree it until well blended.
• Put the skillet back on medium high heat and heat the rest of 2 tbsp of butter.
• Put pepper puree in the skillet ( be careful as it can splutter).
• Crumble veg stock with your hands in the pepper puree or dissolve it in half cup of warm water and add to the pepper puree.
• Add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.
• Splash in cream and stir well to combine.
• Taste and adjust seasonings.
• Add reserved pasta water if sauce appears too thick.
• Add pasta to the skillet.
• Add parmesan and parsley/basil and then stir it together to coat pasta.
• Serve with extra parmesan, crushed red pepper flakes and generous sprinkling of basil/parsley. (omit crushed red pepper if making for kids)
• Enjoy!