Being a freakishly ugly individual, I have found it necessary to acquire certain skills in order to have the opportunity to make myself even marginally more appealing to women. I have learned that you can always, literally always, count on a woman being impressed by a delicious meal prepared from scratch by her boyfriend or husband. Armed with this knowledge, I have developed a small arsenal of recipes. These are nearly fool proof, sure-fire crowd pleasers that require very little effort and use easily obtainable, inexpensive ingredients. Today I will impart the first in what will be an intermittent series of recipes designed for guys (or girls) with no skills in the kitchen and a desire (or need) to impress their current (or potential) mate. I give you...Penne with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.I'll start with the ingredients. I usually shop at Wegman's, where everything on this list is a regular stock item.
For Sauce:
1 15.5 oz jar of Melissa's Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers (other brands OK, but these are really consistently good)
1 medium onion chopped finely
4 to 8 cloves of finely chopped garlic depending on how much you like it. I use 8
2 tablespoons of olive oil for sautéing
1/2 pint of heavy cream
For Garnish:
A few sprigs of Fresh Basil (not necessary but makes a GREAT presentation)
Locatelli Grated Romano Cheese (accept no substitutes!, well you can use another brand, but this is the absolute best)
1 pound box of penne style pasta.
OK, the preparation is really easy, and you can do the sauce in advance if you want. If however you want to do it on the same day, no problem, it will only take about 40 min or so from start to finish.
To start, put the water on to boil for the pasta. I like to liberally salt the water and add a splash of olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking. While you are waiting for the water to boil, you can start the sauce.
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium high heat and sauté the onion and garlic together until the garlic just begins to turn golden and the onion is transparent, it should smell great. Take it off the heat and set aside.
Now you can drain the water from the peppers and then add all of the peppers as well as the cooked onion and garlic to a blender. Then pulse the blender until the veggies reduce to a smooth puree. This shouldn't take long at all. Now add the puree to the same pan you cooked the onion and garlic in and put on medium low heat and add the half pint of cream. You should let the sauce cook for at least 10 minutes from this point. Stir this occasionally while it is bubbling and turn your attention to the pasta.
Once the pasta is done you can drain and plate it and spoon some of the beautifully colored sauce over it. If you decided to pop for the fresh basil, you can add a sprig to each plate now and serve. Make sure you don't forget to pass the Locatelli cheese!
This meal would go great with a salad and a nice glass of red wine. The rest, as they say, is up to you. Let me know what you think.
