Print the recipe page!  roasted red pepper pasta

I saw this recipe pop up recently over at Pioneer Woman.  I decided to try it out a la food storage (which wasn’t too hard to do) and everyone who tried it really liked it!  Speaking for myself, I personally LOVE anything having to do with roasted red peppers.  Making a red pepper sauce to toss with pasta seemed like a great idea!    

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Ingredients:

2 (12 oz.) jars roasted red peppers, drained

3/4 cup freeze dried onion (with 1/2 cup water for rehydrating)

2 TBS butter powder

2 TBS heavy cream powder (mixed with 6 TBS water)

1 tsp. chicken bouillon (mixed with 1 cup water to make broth)

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)

1 (16 oz) box pasta of your choice (short ones like rigatoni or penne catch the sauce nicely)

1/2 tsp. salt (or more to taste)

ground black pepper

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1 TBS Italian seasoning

4 quarts water (for boiling pasta)

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Tools and Supplies:

Manual Food Mill (*this is my non-electric back up plan to a food processor or blender.  This OXO mill is the one I have.)

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Instructions:

Rehydrate the onions and roughly chop the roasted red peppers.  Once the onions are soft, pour one TBS of remaining onion liquid from the bowl to mix with 2 TBS butter powder.  Drain the remaining water from the onions and mix the drained onions with the chopped red peppers.  Add the butter mixture.  Puree the onions and peppers using a manual food mill, if needed, using the medium sized grate.

Heat 4 quarts of water to boil.  Once heated, use 1 cup boiling water to mix with 1 tsp chicken bouillon to make broth.  Separately, mix 6 TBS water with 2 TBS heavy cream powder.  Set aside.  Add the pasta to cook in the water according to packaged instructions.

In a skillet over medium heat, heat the red pepper puree.  Add the broth, salt and pepper.  Turn down the heat and add the cream.  Next, add the Italian seasoning and garlic powder.  Taste to adjust the seasonings if needed.  Once the pasta is finished cooking, drain and add to the sauce.  Finally, toss all with Parmesan cheese.  Serve, topped with an extra sprinkle of Parmesan.

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Rehydrate the onions.  Once soft, use some of the left over liquid to mix with the butter powder.  The butter powder is added just for flavor here.

Combine the onions. peppers and butter mixture.  Puree using a manual food mill (if without electricity), using the medium sized grate.  In using a manual mill like this, I’ve found it works best to use a heavy shallow dish underneath the mill (rather than a taller one);  it’s steadier that way in turning the handle.  Be sure to scrape the underneath area of the grate to get all the puree.

Here’s a look at the finished puree.

Moving right along, begin boiling 4 quarts of water.   Once heated, dissolve a cup of the hot water together with the 1 tsp chicken bouillon.  Separately, use 6 TBS water to mix with the 2 TBS heavy cream powder.  Set these two ingredients aside.

Now to the stove.  Heat the puree in a skillet, adding the chicken broth to help thin it out. Add in the salt and pepper and stir until heated.  Turn down the heat and add in the cream.  Add in the garlic powder and Italian seasonings and taste to see if anything needs adjusting.

Awesome sauce!!

Once the pasta is done, drain it, adding it to the sauce as well as the 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  Toss everything together.

Serve with another sprinkle of Parmesan and herbs if you like.  Good stuff!!

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Notes:

• It would be super easy to add any meat of your choice to this.  I’m going to keep this as a vegetarian meal, but I think sausage crumbles would probably be pretty good.

• I gave Thrive’s freeze dried onions a chance here but I think from now on I’ll stick with Provident Pantry’s freeze dried onion flakes.  I didn’t think the flavor was as good as Provident Pantry’s brand and I like the size of PP’s onions better too (they’re about double the size of Thrive’s).