If you haven’t already checked out my post about roasting and preserving bell peppers, you definitely should here. But if you have you’ll know how much I love roasted peppers. Buying them pre roasted is great as well, but if you’ve got a surplus of peppers in your garden then it’s a good way to use them.
Roasted peppers are right up there with sundried tomatoes for me in terms of yummy pasta additions. The first pasta sauce I ever learned to make was a tomato vodka sauce. I quickly started using sundried tomatoes and roasted peppers in place of regular tomatoes and eventually this became my recipe.
Substitutions:
I still use vodka in my sauce, but it is also tasty with white wine, or without alcohol all together. If you’re removing the alcohol just sub in more chicken stock. And for my lactose intolerant friends the cream can be substituted with coconut cream. It will give the sauce a bit of a coconut taste, which is delicious unless you aren’t a coconut fan.
I love using this sauce with roasted or grilled chicken. If you have a whole grilled chicken, the addition of the charred meat gives the dish some lovely depth of flavour. When I roast whole chickens I tend to put cloves of garlic into the pan that come out all soft and delicious. I will definitely add those if I have them. If you’ve got roasted garlic on hand or feel like roasting some, the added flavour boost is worth it.
Meal Prep Worthy!
This sauce is wonderful to make in large batches (without any meat) and then stored in jars in the fridge. It also freezers very well. Normally I’ll make a bunch of the sauce at the beginning of the week and then simply pour the warmed sauce over some pasta throughout the week for quick handy meals.
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup Roasted Red Peppers
- 1/2 a Large Red Onion Finely diced
- 2 cloves Garlic, sliced Roasted is delicious here too!
- 2 cups Roasted or Grilled Chicken Diced
- 1/4 cup Vodka or White Wine
- 1 cup Chicken stock
- 1/2 cup 35% Cream
- Salt and Pepper To Taste
- 1 tbsp Chili Flakes or to taste
- Olive Oil for frying
- 2 cups Dry Rigatoni or Penne Pasta
- 1/2 cup Crumbled Feta
- 2 tbsps Fresh Basil Thinly sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- While you’re preparing the sauce, cook the pasta according to package instructions.
- Pour the roasted red peppers, along with some of the oils from their jar, into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. I use my Immersion Blender (Stick Blender) for this. Set aside the pureed peppers.
- Heat a good swirl of olive oil in deep frying pan over medium low heat.
- Gently fry the diced onion until it’s soft, translucent and beginning to just brown on the edges. Add in your garlic and fry another minute or so until fragrant. Add in your chicken pieces.
- Next, add your pureed peppers and fry for about 30 seconds stirring to coat the onions, garlic and chicken. Deglaze the pan with your vodka and stir to scrape up the good bits on the bottom.
- Add in your chicken stock. Stir and allow to simmer for about 3-5 minutes. You aren’t trying to thicken it too much or cook away too much of the liquid. You are just trying to have all the flavours blend together nicely.
- Finally add your cream and stir to combine. Let it all simmer for a minute or two. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and chili flakes.
- When your sauce and pasta are both done, stir the sauce through to coat all the the pasta.
- Serve with sprinkled feta and sliced basil.This is also awesome with garlic bread.
LizaLeigh
