Quick and Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Try this delicious Quick and Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta recipe, a flavorful and easy-to-make dish.
Try this delicious Quick and Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta recipe, a flavorful and easy-to-make dish.
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- freshly ground black pepper
- 12 ounces, weight pasta of your choice (i prefer short ones l penne, etc.)
- 1/2 whole large onion finely diced
- 1 jar (15.5 ounces) roasted red peppers drained and roughly chopped
- 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon salt more to taste
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (more to taste)
- 1/2 cup parmesan shavings (more for serving)
- finely minced parsley
- Carbohydrate 1.02139703125183 g
- Cholesterol 15.2515625065405 mg
- Fat 5.76418531496744 g
- Fiber 0.0480703107118607 g
- Protein 0.183139843775858 g
- Saturated Fat 3.64590781406266 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (38g)
- Sodium 158.693187517522 mg
- Sugar 0.973326720539965 g
- Trans Fat 0.405660312672731 g
- Calories 55 calories
Step-by-step
- Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes or until starting to soften. Add the chopped red peppers and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until hot.
- Remove the skillet from the heat. Carefully transfer the contents of the skillet to a food processor or blender. Place on the lid and puree the pepper mixture until totally blended (there will still be some texture to the peppers.)
- Heat the other 2 tablespoon butter back to the skillet over medium heat. Pour the pepper puree back into the skillet. Add the broth, salt, and pepper, and stir until heated. Splash in the cream and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if you need to.
- Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet. Add Parmesan and parsley/basil, then stir it together to coat the pasta.
Home cooks frequently commit the error of adding heavy cream directly to hot, unblended acidic vegetables, causing the dairy to curdle upon contact. Achieving a velvety texture requires complete thermal integration between the pureed aromatics and the dairy fats. When processing the drained roasted peppers, onions, garlic, and broth, ensure the blender lid is vented properly with a kitchen towel to prevent steam pressure buildup while still allowing the high-speed blades to pulverize the fibrous vegetable skins into a uniform slurry.
Maintaining medium heat when returning the puree to the skillet allows the stock to reduce slightly before the heavy cream is introduced, which stabilizes the emulsion. Undercooking the initial onion and garlic mixture leaves harsh sulfurous compounds that overpower the natural sweetness of the peppers, whereas sweating those aromatics until translucent builds the foundational savory depth required to balance the jarred fruit. Incorporating freshly grated parmesan cheese off the direct burner prevents the proteins in the cheese from seizing and creating a grainy texture in the sauce.
Stirring cooked short-shape pasta directly into the warm skillet permits the starches remaining on the exterior of the noodles to bind with the pepper emulsion. Substitutions work predictably here if ratios remain balanced; substituting unsweetened full-fat coconut milk for the heavy cream yields a comparable viscosity, though the cooking time must be extended by roughly sixty seconds to evaporate excess moisture.
