Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo

Hello Lovelies.

It isn't too often that I crave pasta for dinner, which I use to crave all the time. I blame this on working at the olive garden. Mmhm, when you see pasta every day at work, it can make you really not want it anymore. Well, I was craving pasta one night, but I wanted something different. I absolutely love alfredo sauce, even though I know it's bad for you, but I didn't just want regular alfredo. When in doubt for a recipe, look on pintrest. :P So I found this roasted red pepper alfredo that looked phenomenal, so we decided to try it.

First, before we begin, we have to roast the red peppers. Now, the recipe calls for just a store bought jar of roasted red peppers, which I did not have on hand, but I did have red peppers, so why not just roast those. Heat the oven at 500 degrees, yes it is hot. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place the peppers on it. Once the oven is at 500, pop in those peppers, just as they are, no seasoning, no oil.

 

 

These are going to take about an hour to fully roast, however every 15 minutes I flipped them. We are looking for them to get black and charred on the outside, and for the peppers to burst. Keep in mind, while these are roasting the natural oils of the peppers, may make your eyes water if you have sensitive eyes. They definitely did for me.

 

This is what we want to start to see. Once the peppers are soft and tender, pull them from the oven, and wrap them completely in the foil, and allow them to sit like this until they are cool enough to handle, where you will not burn yourself. Once the peppers have fully cooled, mine took about 40 minutes, it is time to prepare them. We want to peel all the charred skin off, the best way to do this, it to flip your knife around ( blade side pointed up, and dull side down), and literally scrape it off. It should fall right off. Once that is done, we want to cut the stem off, open up these bad boys and remove the seeds, as well as the membrane. If you are not sure what the membrane is, it is the clear, translucent bubbles, that sort of look like scales. The best way to remove these, is to carefully slide your knife under the layer, it will be very thin, and just guide it across. You don't necessarily need

 to membrane it if you wish not to, it just makes it pretty.

 

 

Now, time to slicey, slice, slice.

 

I roasted my red peppers the day before we made the pasta, so I just stored them in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

 

Now, when you're ready to make the pasta, start by getting your pasta to boil, this one calls for linguine.

 

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a  saucepan over medium heat. Add one diced onion, and two cloves of garlic once the oil is hot and sauté until translucent. Once ready, stir in 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Mix well, and then add in 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese and  1/2 cup of grated parmesan. You want the cheese to be melted completely, our parmesan was not melting the way it usually does. If it is not melted all the way it will not be smooth, ours wasn't as smooth as it could have been, but we were hungry and rushed it, it was still delicious though. Add the red peppers to the sauce once the cheese has melted, give it a stir, and then pulse it in a blender until the peppers have been pureed into the sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper and enjoy.

 

We wanted garlic bread with this but didn't have any on hand, however, we did have mozzarella sticks on hand, and these went beautifully together. They really complimented each other on flavor. I loved dipping them in the sauce, and wrapping the pasta around it. The picture of my plate might not be the most beautiful plate, but like I said, we were hungry. :) And it was delicious. I would make this recipe again.

 The inspiration for this recipe came fromhere

 

Recipe:

 

Ingredients

• 12 ounces linguine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
• Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in milk, heavy cream, goat cheese and Parmesan until cheeses has melted, about 1-2 minutes. Add red peppers and puree with an immersion blender. Stir in pasta and gently toss to combine; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan, if desired.