Creamy tomato and pepper pasta
As easy as it is to crack open a jar of tomato sauce, nothing quite beats homemade. This creamy tomato and pepper pasta is absolutely delicious and will help you hit your five a day in no time. Plus, its way more fun than a salad x
I personally like to top my pasta with feta, cherry tomatoes and feta but if you want to turn this into a top-tier pasta bake, simply sprinkle of the cheeses of your choice and whack under the grill for that melty cheese topping that is essential on a pasta bake. If you want a lil meaty addition, some chopped up and fried chorizo pieces would add a real smoky flavour to this dish – simply just fry them off and add to the sauce after you have blended it.
This is also a great dish if you’re veggie or a big fan of Meatless Mondays. After going veggie for nearly two years, I really do appreciate a good vegetarian meal and try to cut down my meat consumption where I can (ignore the bit I mentioned about choizo earlier on haha). Anyway, if you want to go a step further and make this vegan, swap out the cream cheese for a plant based alternative. You could sprinkle the top with nutritional yeast as a ‘cheesy’ flavour alternative to feta.
For more dinner inspo, check out my page here and prepare to find lots of additional pasta dishes, some air fryer staples and maybe the odd spud. It is even a dinner if carbs aren’t involved?
Ingredients
- 1 red pepper, cored and diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 200g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tbsp cream cheese
- 250g pasta - I like Rigatoni
- 50g feta cheese
- Small bunch of chopped parsley
Method
- Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and add in a good glug of olive oil. Throw in the red pepper, red onion and garlic and sweat down for a couple of minutes. Add in the tomato puree most of the cherry tomatoes, leaving a handful for later on. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- When everything is softened down, pour it all into a mini chopper and blitz with the cream cheese to a smooth sauce.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add in the pasta. Cook according to the package instructions.
- Drain the pasta but reserve a mug of pasta water, then pop the pasta back in the hot pan and add in the tomato sauce, loosening with a splash of the pasta water to make it a nice saucy consistency. Sprinkle in the parsley, the rest of the cherry tomatoes and the feta, then dig in!