Rukmini Iyer’s recipe for speedy and simple roast pink pepper orecchiette | Pasta

This dish is a contented twist of fate. I first made it to accompany roast potatoes, with muhammara in thoughts (a scrumptious Heart Japanese dip of roast pink pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses). However I had no walnuts, so used pistachios as a substitute. The result’s addictive and it has since change into a go-to; the sauce works simply as smartly tossed thru pasta because it does with grilled prawns or roast potatoes. You want to use crumbled feta as a substitute of ricotta to best the pasta, however I love that the ricotta doesn’t compete with the flavor of the sauce.

Roast pink pepper orecchiette with pistachios and ricotta

Prep 15 min
Prepare dinner 30 min
Serves 2

200g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 huge pink peppers, pith and seeds discarded, flesh kind of chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
2 tbsp olive oil
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
200g orechiette, or some other powerful 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 sufficiently big to carry the whole thing in a single layer, toss to coat, then roast or 25 mins.

When there are quarter-hour left of roasting time, deliver a big pan of salted water to a boil and prepare dinner the orechiette in keeping with the packet directions or on your most popular degree of al dente. Reserve part a mug of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and go back it to the empty pan.

As soon as the peppers and tomatoes are accomplished, blitz part 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 throughout the pasta, style and season with salt as wanted; if the sauce turns out too thick, upload a tablespoon or so of the reserved pasta water to loosen it (mine didn’t want any pasta water, however it’ll rely on how smartly roasted the peppers and tomatoes are).

More or less chop the remainder pistachios. Spoon the pasta into warmed bowls, best every portion with a tablespoon of ricotta and the remainder unblitzed roasted peppers, tomatoes and chopped pistachios, upload a excellent grind of black pepper and serve sizzling.