Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

This Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta is bursting with flavour and goes down in just 15mins!

This recipe is quite the tongue-twister isn’t it? Unfortunately, you’re going to have to get used to saying it, because I guarantee it’s about to become a regular for you! Follow me…

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Regular pesto is great, but throwing in some roasted red peppers really takes things to new heights. They add heaps of flavour and create the sauciest, most delicious pasta imaginable! For this pesto recipe you’ll actually only need 6 ingredients:

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Ingredients

• Roasted Red Peppers – Jarred roasted red peppers work perfectly here. You can make your own if you’d prefer (I’ve added a note on that in the recipe card below).
• Basil – Fresh and lots of it!
• Pine nuts – You can toast them if you’d like, but it’s not essential.
• Parmesan – Freshly grated. Avoid the pre-grated/powdered stuff. It’ll throw off the flavour and texture of the pesto.
• Garlic – 1 clove goes a long way!
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Ensure it’s extra virgin olive oil, not regular olive oil.

Can I make this ahead of time?

Yep! It’s super quick to whip up fresh, but you can tightly store in the fridge until needed if you’d prefer.

Process shots: add ingredients to food processor (photo 1), blitz until well combined (photo 2), scrape into large mixing bowl (photo 3).

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

When it comes to mixing in the pasta, you do not want to do it overheat. Heating pesto not only burns the basil, but also turns the sauce greasy. To create a pasta sauce, you want to toss the pasta in a bowl, where the leftover heat from the pasta will cook the pesto. From here, you want to add a splash of pasta water. The starch molecules will help emulsify the oil and form a silky, almost quite ‘creamy’ sauce.

Tips for making Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

1. Work quickly so the sauce/pasta doesn’t cool down too much.
2. I recommend using a long-cut pasta for this type of pesto, just so it doesn’t clump up in the shorter-cut pastas. Here I use Linguine, but Fettuccine and Spaghetti work great.
3. Lots of parmesan for serving – obviously!

Serving Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

Once the sauce has thickened around the pasta you’re good to go!

How can I store and reheat leftovers?

Pop it in an airtight container for 2-3 days. I actually don’t recommend reheating this pasta, but bring it to room temp instead. Reheating pesto often turns it greasy and burns the basil.

Okey dokey, let’s tuck into this roasted red pepper pesto pasta recipe shall we?!

How to make Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta (Full Recipe & Video)

5 from 7 votes

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

By: Chris Collins

This Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta is bursting with flavour and goes down in just 15mins!

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Total: 15 minutes mins

Servings: 4

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Equipment

• Large Pot & Pasta Tongs (for pasta)
• Food Processor (for pesto)
• Fine Cheese Grater
• Large Mixing Bowl

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 14oz / 400g Linguine, or other long cut pasta
• ▢ 16oz / 460g jar of Roasted Red Peppers, drained (see notes)
• ▢ 1/3 cup / 80ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• ▢ 1/2cup / 40g freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra to serve
• ▢ 1 small bunch of Fresh Basil (1oz/30g)
• ▢ 4 tbsp Pinenuts, optionally toasted
• ▢ 1 clove of Garlic, peeled
• ▢ 1/2 tsp Salt, or to taste
• ▢ 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, or to taste

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions 

• Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.
• Add all of the other ingredients into a food processor and blitz until well combined. Scrape into a large mixing bowl.
• Use tongs to transfer the cooked pasta straight from the pot into the bowl of pesto, embracing any excess water that comes with it. Toss until the pasta is fully coated and the pesto thickens around it and clings to it. If the pesto dries up you can add in a splash of the starchy pasta water from the pot to thin it out as needed. Just don’t use too much else it’ll turn watery. Also, make sure it’s done in a bowl off the heat, pesto doesn’t cook well.
• Serve warm with extra parmesan!

Video

Notes

a) Roasted Red Peppers - Don't rinse the peppers, just squeeze out as much of the vinegary brine as you can. If you want to make your own, I recommend using 3-4 fresh peppers. Place them under the grill or on the flame of the hob and turn regularly until charred all the way around. Place in a bowl with cling film over until the peppers cool, then peel off the skins (leaving some char for flavour). Just remember to remove the core/seeds.

b) Sauce - This will make a fairly 'saucy' pasta if you use all the pesto. You can use less pesto if you like a lighter sauce!

c) Speed - The leftover heat from the pasta will cook the sauce, just work quickly so it doesn't go cold. 

d) Reheat - Store in the fridge with a tight cover. When it comes to reheating, I actually recommend just bringing it to room temp. When you reheat pesto it often goes oily and the basil burns.

e) Calories - based on using 1/3 cup olive oil and no extra parmesan.

Your Private Notes:

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Nutrition

Calories: 389kcal | Carbohydrates: 28.82g | Protein: 10.33g | Fat: 26.97g | Saturated Fat: 5.315g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.925g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15.904g | Trans Fat: 0.118g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 764mg | Potassium: 217mg | Fiber: 4.2g | Sugar: 3.28g | Vitamin A: 2641IU | Vitamin C: 126.1mg | Calcium: 145mg | Iron: 2.33mg

Looking for more?

You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’

For another roasted red pepper pasta recipe check out my Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta!

For more similar recipes check out these beauties:

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• Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
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