Pasta with Roasted Bell Pepper Sauce

Roasting the peppers

1. In summer sweet peppers are plentiful. Buy a few fleshy red peppers and the pasta sauce will turn out great. Whether to add chili is a matter of taste. You will also need garlic, a sprig of fresh green basil, shallot or another sweet onion, and the best olive oil you have.

2. Roast the peppers whole, ideally over an open flame or hot coals. Vegetables also roast very well in a home electric roaster; I use a Bulgarian pepper roaster. If you cannot roast them over a flame, use the oven (200 °C for about 25 minutes, turning, until the skin is blackened in places), or simply fry the whole peppers in a pan.

   
   

3. Put the roasted peppers in a container or a sealed plastic bag until completely cool.

4. Peel the blackened skin off the cooled peppers; it comes off easily. The peppers become soft and take on the wonderful aroma typical of vegetables roasted over a flame.

5. Remove the seeds and stems, then chop the flesh into small pieces with a knife.

   

The sauce

1. Peel and finely chop the onion. If you are using chili, peel and finely chop it too.

2. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion (with the chili) until soft and lightly browned, 5 minutes.

3. Add 1-2 peeled and crushed garlic cloves, then all the prepared sweet pepper. Salt the vegetables.

   

4. Put a whole sprig of fresh basil, stem and leaves, into the sauce.

5. Simmer the peppers over below-medium heat under a lid for 20 minutes. Then discard the basil sprig.

   

6. Let the sauce cool a little and transfer the vegetable mixture to a deep bowl.

7. Puree the sauce with an immersion blender until smooth. Although the peppers are red, the sauce usually turns out dark orange. If needed, add more salt to taste.

   

Pasta and serving

1. It is best to use short tubular pasta that can hold a not-too-thick sauce inside and on its surface. Penne, rigatoni, tortiglioni, paccheri and the like are perfect.

2. While the sauce simmers, bring 2 l of water to a boil in a large pot and salt it: 7 g of salt per 1 liter.

3. Cook the pasta until al dente, following the time on the package.

4. Drain the pasta in a colander.

5. Mix the pasta with the finished pepper sauce. Mix very thoroughly so the inside of the pasta tubes picks up as much sauce as possible.

   

6. Put the pasta on plates and garnish with a sprig of basil. Serve right away while hot. Since this is a vegetarian dish, it is better not to sprinkle it with cheese. Although, as you like.

   

   I quite often add cream or milk, Italian ricotta, or even processed cheese to a sauce like this. It tastes good, but the aroma and flavor of the roasted pepper still dominate, and to my taste these ingredients are unnecessary. You can add a pinch of dried oregano, whose aroma only improves the dish.