Roast Red Pepper Orecchiette with Pistachios and Ricotta
Orecchiette tossed in a smoky roast red pepper and tomato sauce blitzed with pistachios, topped with ricotta and more pistachios.
Ingredients
- 400g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 4 large red peppers, pith and seeds discarded, flesh roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- flaky sea salt and black pepper
- 400g orecchiette or another robust pasta shape
- 100g pistachios, toasted if you wish
- 4 heaped tbsp ricotta
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/gas 6.
- Tip the tomatoes, peppers, garlic, oil and 2 tsp salt into a roasting tin large enough to hold everything in one layer, toss to coat, then roast for 25 minutes.
- When there are 15 minutes of roasting time left, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the orecchiette according to the packet instructions. Reserve a mug of the pasta cooking water, then drain and return the pasta to the empty pan.
- Once the peppers and tomatoes are done, blitz half of them with 60g of the pistachios in a blender or food processor until broken down into a smoothish sauce.
- Stir the sauce through the pasta, taste and season with salt as needed; loosen with a tablespoon or so of the reserved pasta water if the sauce seems too thick.
- Roughly chop the remaining pistachios.
- Spoon the pasta into warmed bowls, top each portion with a spoonful of ricotta and the remaining unblitzed roasted peppers, tomatoes and chopped pistachios, add a good grind of black pepper and serve hot.