Recipe of the Week: Roasted Red Pepper Pasta...or Pizza!

(original recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod)

This was so so so so scrumptious, and surprisingly easy to make.  You get to roast your own red peppers too, which is AW-esome.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

• 3 large red bell peppers
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion,chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
• 1.5 Tbsp basil
• 1 1/2 - 2 tsp oregano 
• 2-3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese (freshly grated, or just the stuff you buy to put on spaghetti)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Roast red peppers over gas flame, under the broiler, or on the grill. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until peppers are completely black. Place peppers in a paper bag to allow to sweat. Peel the charred skins from the peppers and remove the seeds. Chop the peppers and set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until softened. Stir in garlic, red peppers, and tomato sauce. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Add  basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

3. Purée the sauce using an immersion blender or transfer the sauce to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth with some texture remaining. Add parmesan cheese, and more spices if necessary and pulse it a few times in the blender.

Serve over pasta, or....put it on a delicious chicken pizza. Mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm.

Here's the sauce...it's so red and beautiful.

Over pasta. Oops, how'd that pen/highlighter get in there? Well, you caught me: I'm not much of a photographer.

Wow. This was so good. We used the extra roasted red pepper sauce a couple days later and decided we liked it better as pizza sauce.  The pizza has saute'ed onions, mozzarella cheese and chicken, and of course made with my brother's famous pizza crust....there's nothing better.