Red Pepper Pasta Sauce

It's appropriate, I think, that the beginning post for my year leading up to 20 blogging years should be for a recipe that reflects both my experience gained while blogging, and the state of my memory almost 20 years into it. I wrote down the ingredients and measurements for this recipe, but, with my older brain, can't remember where I put it. The recipe will be from memory and I think that you can rely on everything except the amount of liquid, mostly because the photo part of my memory still works for much of it, so I remember the onion and garlic part, the herbs part, the blender part which includes the parmesan and pine nuts and red wine vinegar. Can't quite picture the adding of the milk. Read the recipe to see how we are going to work around that.

The usual pasta sauces here are my favorite zucchini-based tomato pasta sauce and also Costco pesto in a jar. A recent gift of already roasted and prepared red peppers led me to thinking about trying a red pepper pasta sauce and I'm glad I did. I looked at about six different recipes for that kind of sauce on the Internet, and then borrowed from them to create my own recipe. Some of the Internet recipes used fresh roasted peppers and some use the kind of red peppers that come in a jar. I think that for most recipes either will work, so if you don't have fresh roasted red peppers, try this with the kind in a jar, O.K.?

Red Pepper Pasta Sauce

Good for 3-4 servings of pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 onion (I used yellow), peeled, thinly sliced, then roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced mixed herbs - I used fresh flat-leaf parsley and fresh basil
1 cup red bell pepper - roasted, peeled, core and stem and seeds removed (can use jarred, drained)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (I toasted them in the same skillet as the onions, after the onions were done)
milk
salt and pepper to taste (about 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper)

In a large skillet, heat one (1) tablespoon olive oil until shimmering. Add the onions and reduce heat to medium. Stir to coat the onion pieces with oil and continue to cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Onions will become translucent and begin to brown. Don't burn them.

Add the garlic and lower heat to medium-low. Stir into the onions and cook, stirring very often, for 2 minutes.

In a blender that has a lot of power, or in a food processor or Vitamix, place half the onion mixture, half the herb mixture, all of the red bell peppers, half the Parmesan cheese and the 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Process/blend on high until the mixture begins to look smooth (time varies by machine). 

Add the pine nuts, the rest of the onion mixture and herb mixture, the rest of the Parmesan cheese, the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon milk. Process, adding additional milk by tablespoons until mixture easily processes and becomes smooth. Err on the side of less milk because you will be able to add hot pasta water if sauce is too thick when combined with the pasta. You just want enough liquid so that the sauce blends continuously in the turned on blender. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Process another few seconds to blend in the salt and pepper. Taste again. If needed, process in a small amount of additional red wine vinegar to make the sauce piquant, not bland.

In a large pot of salted water, cook 8-10 oz. of  your favorite pasta according to package directions (I used fresh cheese tortellini, but most pastas will work), drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Return pasta to pot, add the sauce and stir to coat pasta. If too thick, add additional pasta water, a little at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Pass additional Parmesan, if desired, at the table.