Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce

I LOVE roasted red peppers. They are sweet, juicy, smoky and flavourful. I eat them in wraps or sandwiched between thick slices of bread (tip: add hummus), or as a side dish for non-Asian cooking, or on its own because they are just so good and I can’t stop myself!

I saw a recipe for roasted red pepper pasta sauce and gave it a shot. The original recipe called for 4 tablespoons of butter but no no, I nixed that. Nobody is allowed 4 tablespoons of butter in pasta sauce, nobody!

This is a good change from the usual tomato or cream-based pasta sauces. Let’s go!

Full list of ingredients at the bottom of this post.

I’ve long acquired the kungfu to roast peppers by myself. It’s cheaper and immensely satisfying than buying ready-roasted ones from the shops. Here’s how to roast peppers in your oven *click*. No oven? No problem! Here’s how to roast peppers on your gas stove *click*.

First you need the roasted peppers sliced into strips. Lightly toast your pine nuts; they burn easily so keep an eye on this one. It’s about 2 tbsp worth of pine nuts in the photo, you only need 1 tsp. Saute garlic and onion for a couple of minutes.

Can’t live without meat? Cook up some ground meat in butter, set aside. I use chorizo because it comes ready with salt and spices. Kinda defeats the healthy living part so skip this if you wanna.

Put the roasted red peppers, onion, garlic, pine nuts and sweet basil in the blender. Blend blend blend!

Nyam. Pour content back into pan (with meat if you have it) to cook. Add cream and butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with cooked pasta, your preferred cheese, bits of sweet basil and a whole lotta love.

If you’re not a pasta person, pour it over your meat or spread on your bread. I know that sounds dirty so make sure that you clean up after.

As this Malaysian would say, enjois!

Notes: This recipe’s sauce isn’t very clingy, if you know what I mean. To add richness and clingy-ness, add butter and/or use heavy cream instead of normal cooking cream. But it’s okay not to be so clingy, a major rule in life. If you want a nuttier taste, the max I recommend is 1.5 tsp pine nuts. Anything beyond that is too nutty for anyone’s liking, uewekkk… If you don’t have pine nuts, GO OUT AND BUY IT; store in your fridge for added awesomeness to your salads and pastas. Sweet basil isn’t the same as Thai basil.