04Jun 12
by Serena Langley
Share
no comments
Pasta: who doesn’t love it? There are probably just as many different types of pasta as there are sauces to accompany it, and this week I decided to have a go at inventing my own. The result is this Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Pasta Sauce, which, if I do say so myself,  is simply sublime!
This sauce is a breeze to make, and the roasting adds a rich depth of flavour. I suggest doubling the recipe and freezing or preserving the rest for later.
What you’re going to need:
- 12 medium tomatoes, washed
- 1 whole head of garlic, wrapped in aluminium foil
- 1 Spanish onion, wrapped in aluminium foil
- 1 leek, washed, tips removed
- 1 red bell pepper, washed
- 50 ml olive oil
- 60 g chopped fresh basil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp granulated white sugar
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
What you have to do:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Place the tomatoes, red pepper, leek, onion and garlic on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
- Remove the veggies from the oven and let them cool for 20 minutes.
- Remove the skin from the tomatoes (it should peel off easily after baking) and remove the seeds and the hard bit at the top.
- Remove the skin and seeds from the red peppers. Don’t worry if you can’t get all the skin off, just get as much as possible.
- Remove the aluminium foil from the onion, and peel off the outer layers of brown skin.
- Place the tomatoes, red peppers, leek and onion in a large saucepan.
- Remove the garlic from the aluminium foil. Â Take each clove between your thumb and fingers and squeeze one end over the saucepan. Â The melted garlic should slide out easily. Â Repeat for the rest of the garlic cloves.
- Add the olive oil, sugar, salt and ground black pepper.
- Using a handheld blender, purée the sauce until it is very well blended (about 1 minute on high power).  Alternatively, you can use a food processor or regular blender to make the purée.
- Mix in the freshly chopped basil by hand.
- Add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Reheat if necessary and serve on top of your favourite pasta.
- Any leftover sauce can be safely stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a few days.
Preparation Time:Â 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves: 6
Difficulty: Medium
Tags: bell pepper, garlic, leek, olive oil, pasta sauce, roasted tomato and red pepper pasta sauce, Spanish onion, sugar, tomato, vegetarian
This entry was posted on Monday, 4 June, 2012 at 12:01 pm by Serena Langley and is filed under Less than 90 mins.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0.
You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.