This dish is a cheerful accident. I first made it to accompany roast potatoes, with muhammara in thoughts (a scrumptious Center Japanese dip of roast crimson pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses). However I had no walnuts, so used pistachios as an alternative. The result’s addictive and it has since develop into a go-to; the sauce works simply as properly tossed by pasta because it does with grilled prawns or roast potatoes. You might use crumbled feta as an alternative of ricotta to high the pasta, however I like that the ricotta doesn’t compete with the flavour of the sauce.
Roast crimson pepper orecchiette with pistachios and ricotta
Prep 15 min
Cook dinner 30 min
Serves 2
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 giant crimson peppers, pith and seeds discarded, flesh roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
2 tbsp olive oil
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
200g orechiette, or one other strong pasta form
50g pistachios, toasted if you want
2 generously heaped tbsp ricotta
Warmth the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/fuel 6. Tip the tomatoes, peppers, garlic, oil and a teaspoon of salt right into a roasting tin giant sufficient to carry all the things in a single layer, toss to coat, then roast or 25 minutes.
When there are quarter-hour left of roasting time, carry a big pan of salted water to a boil and prepare dinner the orechiette in keeping with the packet directions or to your most well-liked degree of al dente. Reserve half a mug of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and return it to the empty pan.
As soon as the peppers and tomatoes are completed, blitz half of them with 30g of the pistachios in a high-speed blender or meals processor, till damaged down right into a smoothish sauce. Stir the sauce by the pasta, style and season with salt as wanted; if the sauce appears too thick, add a tablespoon or so of the reserved pasta water to loosen it (mine didn’t want any pasta water, however it’s going to depend upon how properly roasted the peppers and tomatoes are).
Roughly chop the remaining pistachios. Spoon the pasta into warmed bowls, high every portion with a tablespoon of ricotta and the remaining unblitzed roasted peppers, tomatoes and chopped pistachios, add an excellent grind of black pepper and serve scorching.
