Red pepper pasta sauce

Sometimes B buys red peppers and doesn’t consume them. I don’t normally come across red pepper in my Asian diet so I didn’t know what to do with them. But I have cream left over from making the failed white chocolate ganache, and more importantly, I have the internet.

So I went to Pioneerwoman’s website for this red pepper pasta sauce recipe.

As I don’t have a blender in the house, I ground the peppers using the mortar and pestle, and get to really feel like a pioneer woman.

Leading leftover: Red bell pepper/ capsicum, heavy cream

Red pepper pasta sauce

1 whole red bell peppers/ capsicum
1 tbs olive oil
1 small Onion, diced
1 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
6-7 baby carrots, sliced into strips
Parmesan cheese (Grated)
Angel hair pasta (1 serving)

1. Roast red peppers until skin is charred and black. I would feel very silly roasting ONE red capsicum in the oven grill. Thankfully, since I was baking something else in the oven, I didn’t feel like I was wasting electricity.
2. Put charred red pepper into a Ziploc bag and allow it to "sweat". Set aside.
3. In the meantime, dice the onion or shallot, slice the baby carrots and chop the garlic.
4. Remove the pepper from the Ziploc bag, peel the charred skins from the peppers, and remove seeds. Set aside.
5. Pound the peppers into a puree as best as the pestle and mortar will allow me to. Feel grief that despite my best efforts, my hard work leaves me with huge chunks instead of a smooth puree. Set aside pseudo-puree.
6. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add diced onions and garlic and cook until the onions turn more translucent and carrots turn soft because I like them that way.
7. Pour in red pepper puree and stir together. Pioneerwoman says to add plenty of salt and who am I to refuse?
8. Pour in cream and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if necessary.
9. Cook angel hair pasta in boiling water, since it only take a few minutes.
10. Add cooked pasta to the red pepper pasta sauce, and then stir together.
11. Sprinkle grated parmesan.

I discovered something therapeutic while following this recipe.

I love doing anything that can be done easily, so, peeling off the charred skin is a delightful exercise for me. It is so easy that you can say I was born to peel off charred skins of red capsicums. Making puree with mortar and pestle, not so much.

Which might go some way to answer my question of what I am born on earth to do, my natural talents and my search for my life purpose.

Maybe.

What would The Failed Chef do next time?

• Attempt this recipe only when I have a blender!