Red pepper pesto pasta
This red pepper pesto pasta has so much flavour and is so simple to make. Roasted red peppers are the perfect base for a homemade pesto.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- Pasta of your choice 400g dried or 600g fresh
- 1 garlic bulb
- 350 g roasted red peppers this was a 465g jar, drained no need to rinse
- 45 g pine nuts toasted (about ⅓ cup)
- 1 tbsp packed fresh thyme leaves
- 100 ml extra virgin olive oil just under ½ cup
- ½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ tsp flakey sea salt
- 40 g parmesan finely grated
- Extra parmesan to serve
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200C (390f)
- Peel the papery layers off the bulb of garlic and cut the top off horizontally to expose the cloves.
- Drizzle with olive oil, wrap in aluminium foil and roast in the oven for 40 - 50 minutes until caramelised.
- When it has cooled enough to touch, squeeze all of the garlic out and set aside to add to the pesto ingredients.
- In a food processor combine the red peppers, pine nuts, garlic, and thyme until coarsely chopped.
- With the processor running, slowly drizzle the olive oil in until well emulsified.
- Add the parmesan, salt and pepper and mix in by hand.
- Set aside, until ready to use.
- Get your pasta cooking in a pot of well salted boiling water.
- Put the pesto in a big mixing bowl and add the cooked pasta straight into it.
- Thoroughly toss the pasta and the pesto together until well mixed and serve immediately topped with freshly grated parmesan.
Notes
- A note on portion size. This pesto is enough to feed four people but if you are like me and like things on the saucy side it could be three portions instead. Adjust the weight of pasta accordingly. 110g dried or 150g fresh per person!
- Pestos don't tend to do well when heated so that is why you mix it with the pasta in a bowl. The residual heat from the pasta is enough to heat the pesto through.
- Buy a jar around 460g of roasted red peppers then drain and weigh out 350g (don't stress if it's slightly less)
- If you are a garlic lover you COULD do two bulbs of roasted garlic!
- For some other pesto options try my classic basil pesto or delicious arugula pesto.