Roasted Red Pepper Sauce For Pasta

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 4 roasted red peppers, coarsely chopped (see directions for roasting below)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 carrot, scraped and chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 small red onion
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel (can use mortal and pestle-i keep a separate cheap electric coffee grinder just for spices)
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 can fat-free chicken broth or 1 can vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

Recipe

• 1 saute carrot, celery, onion, garlic& fennel in oil 5 minutes.
• 2 add broth, cover& heat on medium until veggies are soft.
• 3 uncover, reduce heat& simmer 20 minutes.
• 4 put peppers and sauted veggies in food processor, using steel blade.
• 5 process til smooth.
• 6 adjust seasoning and serve over pasta.
• 7 to roast the peppers: cut peppers in half, remove seeds and place them cut-side-down on a baking sheet that has been covered with foil and sprayed well w.
• 8 pam broil 3 inches from heat for about 12 minutes.
• 9 the skin on the peppers will turn black.
• 10 remove from oven and seal in a ziplock bag for 15 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.
• 11 peel off skin--it will come off easily.
• 12 **ido large quantities of these when they are in season and cheap.
• 13 they freeze quite well and doing them in advance cuts short the prep time for the next batch of sauce.
• 14 i sometimes freeze the completed sauce, too--good results as well.