Pasta Romesco

We love to roast the red peppers ourselves, rather than buy them already roasted in a jar. Roasting the peppers at home, in our opinion, brings a more balanced flavour to the romesco sauce. But you can always buy jarred roasted red peppers to speed things up.

Ingredients

-1 people+

Metric

Method

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 230°C fan / 500°F.

   
2. 2

   Add the red peppers to a roasting tray. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes, turning halfway so the skins become charred all over. When they’re ready, transfer the red peppers to a chopping board and leave to cool slightly for 10 minutes or so.

   
3. 3

   While the red peppers are cooling, add the almonds to a large frying pan on a medium heat and toast for a few minutes on both sides or until they brown, then remove from the heat.

   
4. 4

   Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Shortly before the pasta is ready, remove 125ml ( 1/2 cup) of the cooking water and leave to one side for the next step.

   
5. 5

   Peel the skins off the red peppers, then also discard the stalks and the seeds. Add the red pepper flesh to a blender, along with the toasted almonds, garlic clove, tomato purée dried oregano, smoked paprika, red wine vinegar, generous pinches of salt and pepper, and the 1/2 a cup of pasta cooking water you reserved earlier. Blend until smooth, then pour the red pepper sauce into a large frying pan (we use the same pan we used earlier to toast the almonds).

   
6. 6

   Cook the sauce for a minute or so on a low-medium heat. Then, when the pasta is ready, use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta straight into the sauce, adding some more of the pasta water as you go to loosen it.

   
7. 7

   Divide onto plates or bowls and top with freshly ground black pepper and olive oil, if you like.