Printable Recipe - PW’s Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
I love pasta. Always have. Always will. And I prefer pasta sauce without meat—a throwback to my vegetarian days in sunny Los Angeles. The way I see it, there are just too many delicious non-meat ingredients that accompany pasta so well, and there’s no need to mess it all up with sausage or ground beef or chicken.
Today’s dish is the perfect example.
I used to eat a dish just like this at a restaurant in Los Angeles, and when I moved away I was forced to replicate it in my kitchen lest I begin to confuse nostalgia for this pasta with nostalgia for James and run back to southern California. And it’s a good thing I DID figure it out, or I might be living in a house in Newport Beach with 1.7 children and a dog named Britney.
Not that everyone in Newport Beach has 1.7 children and dogs named Britney. But I would have.
To begin, fire up the grill (the range in the Lodge has this built in grill), the broiler, or the open flame on your cooktop. All are equally effective.
What we need to do is char the heck out of the red peppers.
Whether it’s under the broiler or on the grill, I usually blacken them for about ten minutes, then remove them and set them on a plate for a few minutes.
After a few minutes, throw the peppers into a large Ziploc bag.
Seal the bags. We need to let them sweat.
While the red peppers are sweating, grab some pine nuts. Unless you’re my sister Betsy, and then you need to stay far away from pine nuts or your head will swell to disturbing proportions.
Heat a small skillet over medium-low heat. We need to toast our pine nuts.
Pour a couple of tablespoons into the pan.
Jiggle the pan around from time to time and cook them for about five minutes. Be careful not to burn ‘em.
Remove the pan from heat when they’re golden brown. (Note: I toasted more than I’m going to use for the recipe, because I love to have toasted pine nuts on hand.)
While the peppers are sweating and the pine nuts are cooling, prepare the other ingredients. Grab three cloves of garlic…
Peel and finely mince the cloves.
Grab an onion…
Cut it in half from root to tip…
Peel off the papery skin and cut off the top, then make several vertical slices in the onion.
Rotate the onion, then slice downward to create a fine dice.
Now it’s time to peel the peppers! Remove them from the Ziploc bag…
And peel off the outer skin with your fingers. It should slide off really easily. (Some folks like to do this under the faucet, but I don’t like to rinse away all this wonderful flavor.)
When it’s all peeled, cut off the tip and slice open the pepper.
Run your knife along the inside to scrape out the seeds and membranes.
These, by the way, are the charred remains of the peppers. There’s a story here. I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s there. And it’s screaming to be written.
Find your blender or food processor.
Throw in the peeled and seeded peppers.
Pulse several times until it’s pureed.
Note that the mixture won’t be totally smooth—it’s have a wonderful red peppery texture.
You can leave the peppers plain, or you can sprinkle in a couple of tablespoons of pine nuts. Note that the pine nuts really do impart a pretty strong nutty flavor to the sauce, so if you’re unsure of how you’ll like it, take it easy at first.
Bring a pot of water to a boil so you can cook the pasta according to package directions.
Confession: I have a SERIOUS weakness for interesting pastas. This is orecchiette, which translates to “Little Ears”.
I love orecchiette, because the little “ears” act as cups to collect whatever sauce you use. I find that orecchiette is better with light, creamy sauces than for heavy meat sauces. Just so you know.
I’m a pasta freak. A pasta aficionado. A pasta loon. A pasta goon. Anytime I go to a city, I stock up on interesting pastas.
Does that make me a bad person?
In a pot or a skillet over medium heat, drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. (Please don’t freak out over the little black spot in the pan. It’s a stray piece of garlic that accidentally fell in there. It’s not a bug or anything.)
Throw in the onion and stir around until it begins to soften. Add in the garlic and stir.
Pour in the red pepper puree.
Just look at the color! The texture! Beautiful.
Stir it around, and add in plenty of salt. I say “plenty” because for some reason, I find that the red peppers need more salt to keep the dish from tasting too bland. Salt away! Just tell ‘em Pioneer Woman said it was okay.
*Just cook the mixture over medium to medium-low heat while the pasta cooks. Stir occasionally and make sure it doesn’t burn.
When the pasta’s done cooking, drain it and set it aside. Then pour in 1/2 cup of heavy cream into the sauce. (Make sure the heat isn’t too high.)
I suppose you COULD use half & half…but why?
Stir the sauce to incorporate the cream and evaluate the texture. If you’d like it a little thinner, splash in some half & half.
Taste the sauce one last time, and add more salt if necessary. I almost always add more salt at this point.
Dump in the pasta starting with 1/2 of the package or so. Stir the mixture together.
I hate it when I add too much pasta for the amount of sauce, so I always start with a little and add more as the sauce permits. If I have leftover pasta, I store it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge and use it to make the kids some macaroni and cheese for lunch the next day.
I am SO not afraid of leftover pasta.
Place a generous portion of pasta in a bowl.
Chop up some flat leaf (Italian) parsley, or whatever other herbs you have on hand. But for this dish, I like parsley best.
Sprinkle it over the top.
Next, grab a block of Parmesan cheese and shave off some thin slices with a vegetable peeler.
Generously throw the slices over the top. You can certainly use pregrated Parmesan, but I’m totally in love with Parmesan chunks these days. (See this luscious pasta dish for further evidence of this.)
Yum.
Yikes.
Lawsie.
Bottom Line: Pasta like this renders me speechless.
Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
3 red bell peppers
2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup heavy cream
Flat leaf parsley, finely minced
Fresh Parmesan, shaved or grated
1/2 to 1 pound pasta: orecchiette, penne, fusilli, etc.
Roast red peppers, then place in a Ziploc bag to allow to sweat. Peel the charred skins from the peppers, then removed seeds. Set aside.
Lightly toast pine nuts in a skillet. Set aside.
Puree peppers with pine nuts. Set aside.
Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a skillet or pot over medium heat, drizzle in olive oil. Add diced onions and garlic and cook until soft. Pour in pepper puree and stir together. Add plenty of salt.
Pour in cream and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if necessary. Add cooked pasta, then stir together.
Place pasta into a bowl, top with chopped parsley and plenty of shaved Parmesan.
Give thanks for Italy.
Repeat as necessary.
