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Roasted Red Pepper Rigatoni… I was craving a red pepper sauce but also a carbonara, so I took the idea and ran with it. Before you come for my head, I am NOT claiming it is carbonara in any way, shape or form ok? OK? ok…I simply took my favorite elements of it and infused them into my classic roasted red pepper pasta. I will be a heretic here, but I will say that I am not crazy about guanciale, at least not the guanciale I can find in town. I tried it in Italy last year and it was a game changer, but here? I much prefer pancetta.
If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my Rigatoni Alla Vodka!
Why You’ll Love Roasted Red Pepper Rigatoni
This pasta is very flavorful, creamy and truly easy to make. It is rich but balanced if that makes sense? It is what I consider a perfect Spring pasta! I love making it when hosting because it is very easy to make the roasted red pepper paste ahead of time and just assemble pretty close to serving time. I serve it family style and I promise it is always a hit.
Substitutions
This recipe truly is unfussy and quite easy to sub. If you don’t want to roast your own peppers, that’s fine. You can use the jarred version but make sure you wash them and dry them really well. You can swap the fresno for some calabrian chiles. Another sub here would be the pasta, you can use ANY pasta you like, yes, even long pastas like bucatini. When it comes to the cheese, you could use Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano. One last sub would be the pancetta, you can use guanciale OR bacon, yes, bacon works too. As you can see, everything in this recipe could be swapped with ease.
Recipe Tip
I had a bit of red pepper paste left, so you can make an extra serving if you’d like.
Roasted Red Pepper Rigatoni
Ingredients
- 3 medium/large red bell peppers
- 1 fresno pepper
- 4 oz pancetta, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil + more for rubbing on the peppers
- 1 large shallot, brunoise
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup grated parmigiano, more for topping
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 basil leaves + more for topping
- 8 oz mezzi rigatoni
Directions
- Rub oil onto the bell peppers and fresno. Broil until black on all sides. Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool.
- Peel and remove seeds. Blend with the basil
- In a cold pan, add the pancetta and turn heat to medium high for 2 min. Lower to med low and let it render and crisp up
- Remove from the pan and add olive oil, the shallots and garlic clove. Cook on medium until translucent and remove garlic
- Add in 3/4 of the pepper paste (reserve some because it makes a bit too much). Add in fish sauce & tamari
- Boil your pasta in salted water until almost al dente
- Whisk the egg into the parm and temper by adding 1/4 cup of pasta water
- Add the pasta to the sauce with some pasta water and cook for 2 min until it becomes glossy
- Turn heat off and add the parm egg and mix until fully incorporated. Test and add salt if needed at this point
- Serve with the pancetta, parm and basil
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
