It was back to making an entree for this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly selection, Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce. This delicious meal was chosen by Jessica of Learning to Love Vegetables. I am so glad she picked this one, because it has caught my eye more than a few times, but for some reason I never got around to making it on my own.
This one is such a snap, too. You puree up a blend of roasted red peppers (I wanted to make my own roasted reds again, like I did recently for soup, but the pickings were slim at the grocery store so I went with jarred), sauteed onion and garlic, a splash of chicken broth, and a healthy sprinkling of feta cheese. My feta cheese was the reduced-fat variety, and I didn't detect a decrease in flavor at all. Anyway, you puree all these ingredients to make a thick sauce. Boil up a batch of fettuccine (mine wasn't whole wheat, unfortunately), reserve some of the starchy cooking liquid to loosen the sauce, and then toss everything together. Sprinkle the pasta with a couple tablespoons of reserved feta and some fresh flat-leaf parsley, and you've got dinner!
I wanted my pasta to be just a tad more substantial, so I tossed it with a bunch of fresh spinach. I have to say, I liked that addition! It gave the dish more bulk, and of course made it healthier, too. I served this with some steamed broccoli tossed in lemon juice. We really loved it. If I had anything to gripe about with it, it would be that the leftovers were very dry. I guess my sauce could have benefited from lots of cooking liquid. We liked our sauce kinda thick, so I didn't use all that much pasta water. Other than that, no complaints! A great, flavorful pasta dish from Ellie, as usual.
I wanted my pasta to be just a tad more substantial, so I tossed it with a bunch of fresh spinach. I have to say, I liked that addition! It gave the dish more bulk, and of course made it healthier, too. I served this with some steamed broccoli tossed in lemon juice. We really loved it. If I had anything to gripe about with it, it would be that the leftovers were very dry. I guess my sauce could have benefited from lots of cooking liquid. We liked our sauce kinda thick, so I didn't use all that much pasta water. Other than that, no complaints! A great, flavorful pasta dish from Ellie, as usual.
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Spinach is a wonderful addition. I loved the sauce. I did not even add the cheese on top because the sauce had so much flavor.
ReplyDeleteSpinach was on my mind as well but opted for red chard instead. It was a healthy dish but needed a bit more flavor. It looks SO good in your pic.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of spinach with this, will try that soon as this was easy enough to make again soon/often, we really liked it a lot. Yours looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI added spinach too, as well as some crushed red pepper and tomato paste. It work really well, I am glad you like it too.
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