Red pepper sauce with pasta

This pepper sauce is as easy as it gets and is delicious. There’s no need to use any kind of dairy cream to make it creamy. Just add a little bit of the starchy boiling pasta water and voilà.

prep time 10 min     cook time 25 min
ingredients for 3
  • 300g pasta of your liking, I used rigatoni
  • 1 big red pepper, sliced
  • 1/2 onion
  • 5-6  cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • handful of pinoli
  • extravirgin olive oil
  • salt
  • fresh basil
  • grated Parmigiano

1. Wash and cut the pepper into thin slices. Slice the onion thinly, place it in a large pan with a little bit of oil  and cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the pepper slices, tomatoes, some salt and a little bit of water (half a glass) and let simmer about 20 min.

2. In the meantime cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.

3. Take a few slices of pepper for garnish. Blend the rest of the sauce with an immersion blende adding the pinoli and some oil. Pour the blended sauce back into the pan. Add some pasta water.

4. Drain the pasta, pour it into the pan with the sauce and mantecare (toss with grated cheese for a few minutes while the pan is still hot).

5. Serve adding basil leaves, some more grated Parmigiano and a few pepper slices onto your plate.

tip: you can roast the pinoli in a hot pan without oil for a few minutes and add them on your pasta instead of blending them with the sauce.

tip: you can substitute the red pepper with a yellow one.

BUON APPETITO!