Roast It Yourself...

One of my favorite things to do on a quiet weekend morning is to get up and watch cooking shows--shocking, I know. A few years ago, I happened to be doing just that, and happened across Ellie Krieger's Healthy Appetite on FoodNetwork. On that particular episode she was making her Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce and it looked yummy and healthy, so I thought I would try it out.

Let me tell you, I completely fell in love with that dish. It is a staple in my repertoire and I make it often. But I always made it with the called-for jar of peppers. Until Saturday.

I had a big bag of sweet red peppers, rainy weather, and an empty house, so I decided to roast the peppers and play with my camera a little bit. It's really easy, and I totally have pictures of the whole process but for some reason my computer isn't cooperating with me at the moment.

I'll walk you through it anyway...

First, lay out your peppers in a single layer on a cookie sheet and stick it under the broiler. The peppers will bubble, blister, hiss, sizzle, squeal, and make all sorts of noises you didn't think they should make.

When they are all bubbly and brown on one side (about 10-15 minutes), flip'em over and roast the other side.

Then, put all the peppers in a big bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Leave them in there for at least 30 minutes or so. This way they'll be cool enough to handle, and being in that bowl under the plastic wrap will steam them and make it SUPER easy to peel them.

Finally, peel all of the skin off, pull out the stem, and clean the pepper of all the seeds. If you don't use all of the peppers right then, you can store them in olive oil in an air-tight container.

I used about 3 of my roasted, cleaned peppers and made my favorite pasta, and it was a million times better than with the peppers out of the jar...totally worth the extra effort! With that, friends, I leave you with this photo of my finished pasta:

And believe me, it was every bit as good as it looks.

I hope everyone is having a superb week!

mg