Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (and an easy one-pot dinner)

I’ve had a bit of writers block gathering up a few words to share here. My brain feels like it’s on overdrive as I process all the changes to our daily life. My mind spins as I read the news, scroll social media. 

The kids are settling into life at home, their relationships with each other alternating between friends and enemies, often changing moment by moment. The house is substantially louder and messier but I find a little comfort in it (until I don’t and then I send everyone to their respective corners of the house relishing a few precious moments of silence). 

We do a little schoolwork every morning, trying to find a rhythm to a dance we’ve never tried before. It’s getting a little easier most days but just when I breathe a little sigh of relief all is not lost with these wild little people, someone refuses to do their math assignment or kicks a sibling under the table and on and on it goes. Baby steps as we get the hang of it.

I haven’t cooked much these last couple weeks. You would think with all this time at home my kitchen would be pumping out one thing or another but by the time I’ve navigated breakfast and lunch, 17 snacks, forced surly children into cleaning up their own messes; my energy and inspiration to make something just isn’t there. 

But we do have to eat and we are lucky to have a fridge and pantry lined with food. I am ultra aware about food waste right now and trying to be a good steward of what we have. I had a jar of roasted red peppers in the back of my refrigerator, opened for some reason or another, but sitting untouched for weeks. A few weeks ago I would have likely tossed it in the garbage after it grew mold, but this week I put it to use and the end result was so surprisingly delicious I figured I should share it with you.

Roasted red pepper sauce comes together in the blender in less than five minutes. A jar of roasted red peppers is blended with cashews and water, a little pesto or frozen basil and lots of salt and pepper for a creamy and lovely sauce. I grabbed the odds and ends out of my refrigerator to make an easy one-pot dinner that everyone loved. It’s a dinner I’ll absolutely make again and one you can easily make your own. If you don’t have cashews, use a cup of cream or a few ounces of cream cheese. Skip the pesto if you don’t have it and season the sauce with a little dried basil and parsley. I added spinach and cauliflower to the pasta because I had some that needed to be used up but you could swap in whatever have on hand or skip it all together. Also, this sauce is lovely as a dip for veggies, drizzled on grilled chicken or used to make an easy casserole with cooked chicken, rice and a bit of shredded cheese. Use this recipe as a jumping off point to make a meal from what you have.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

• 1 12-ounce jar roasted red peppers 

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup roasted cashews

• 1 heaping tablespoon pesto

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/4 teaspoon coarse black pepper

Soak cashews and water in a blender for one hour. Add roasted red peppers, pesto, salt and pepper to blender. Secure lid and blend on low, slowly increasing speed to high and mixing until ingredients are smooth and well-combined.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Bacon, Spinach and Cauliflower

• 1 pound penne pasta

• 3 pieces center-cut bacon diced 

• 2 big handfuls baby spinach

• 4 cups cauliflower florets

• 1 batch roasted red pepper sauce

• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

• Kosher salt and coarse black pepper

In a large pan, sauté bacon pieces on medium-low heat until cooked through. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and place on a paper-towel lined plate. Set aside. Add several large handfuls of spinach to the pan and cook for three to five minutes or until the spinach wilts and cooks down by about half. Turn heat off to the pan, add the bacon back to the pan and set aside.

Boil a large pot of salted water. When the water is boiling, add pasta to the pot. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally for about eight minutes. In the last few minutes of cook time, add the cauliflower florets to the pot of pasta. When the cauliflower is tender (but not mushy) and the pasta is tender, drain the water from the pot. 

Combine the pasta, cauliflower, spinach and bacon. Pour the sauce over the pasta and gently mix to combine. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve immediately.