Roasted Pepper Macaroni

Ever since I started working again I have felt really adverse to cooking. I always think about making wonderful yummy recipes but when it comes down to it I'm too tired and lack much extra time. This weekend, we spent all day home on Saturday and I got a cooking bug. We had the cinnamon apple cornmeal waffles from here for breakfast and for a late lunch we had roasted pepper macaroni and seafood sausages. Man oh man do I love macaroni and cheese but its really unhealthy for you! I wish I could take credit for this recipe but a friend made it for me and I've been hooked ever since! I don't have a specific recipe but I follow a loose guidelines of this:

Roasted Pepper Macaroni

• 2 peppers ( yellow, red, orange) cut into slices
  
• 3-4 cloves of big garlic cut in half or quarters
• Olive Oil
• Walnuts/Pecans (1/4-1/2 cup)
  
• Parmesan Cheese (1/4 cup)
  
• 2-3 cups of Farfalle / Rotini

On a baking sheet covered in foil place the peppers and garlic cloves and drizzle with olive oil.
Peppers waiting to be roasted!
Roast at 350 for 10-20 minutes. This part is tricky as I'm not a fan of the roasted aka burnt peppers so I roast mine until they are soft and light brown but you can go the whole way and dark roast them. Take out of the oven and let cool a bit, otherwise I seem to have problems with my chopper not sealing but if you don't go ahead and go to the next step. I reserve the oil from the baking and put into my chopper in the next step but you can throw it away but why!? its Roasted pepper and garlic olive oil yum.

Place the peppers and garlic in a blender, chopper, etc... with a handful of nuts (from whichever you have chosen), drizzle a bit more olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Blended pepper concotion
Blend until smooth ( usually a few minutes) and voila you have roasted pepper sauce. While the peppers are roasting I will start the pasta and they usually end up being done at the same time. I combine the sauce with the pasta. I had enough for 2-3 cups of pasta and than I saved about 1 cup of sauce for pizza/dipping.


L-R and starting at noon - roasted pepper mac, steamed snap peas with salt, pan fried seafood sausages from Trader Joes ( shrimp, crab, red peppers, cilantro yumminess!!)

Also, don't forget to get your names and addresses if you're interested in doing the ornament swap! Deets here