This may come as quite a shock, but I am still alive. It’s been a tumultuous past two months, and I moved to Texas. Texas! What? How can one be vegan in Texas? In the interest of full disclosure, I am sure many can be vegan in Texas, but I haven’t been. I have been vegetarian. I went back on the cheese, and am having a hard time giving it up again. I told you this would be a haphazard journey. Anyway, Texas is interesting, and muggy, and buggy. I have been cooking up a storm, but to keep the integrity of my blog’s title, I will only post the vegan recipes I make. Last nights was Roasted Red Pepper Marinara with Penne. And it was good. I love pasta with a tomato sauce. It’s one of my comfort foods. It was always the dinner I requested as a kid for my birthday. I make it a lot, and love when I can try something different. This is really tasty, and has a really good flavor compared to other marinaras. My camera was doing weird stuff last night, so I couldn’t get a picture before all the delicious liquid started oozing on my plate, so it’s not as pretty as it could have been, but it was tasty.
Roasted Red Pepper Marinara Sauce with Penne
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups coarsely chopped roasted red peppers (you can be lazy and buy bottled, or you can be amazing, and roast your own. I’ll tell you how)
1 tbsp dried basil
3/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salt
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
6 cups hot cooked penne (about 3 cups uncooked)
1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large sauce pan or dutch oven, over medium/high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until tender. Add bell peppers and the remaining ingredients, omitting the penne and last tbsp olive oil. Bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add last tbsp olive oil. Now here is where you can decide if you want this really chunky, or saucy. I wanted saucy, so I put about 3/4s of the sauce in a blender and then combined it all. You can leave it whole, mashed it up, or blend the whole thing. Your choice. Serve over penne and enjoy.
How to roast red peppers
2 red peppers, stems removed, and washed.
You can either do this in the oven, or on your grill. I do it on the grill because I live in freaking Texas and it’s hot as hell here, and I don’t want to heat up my house anymore than necessary. So turn on your grill, or oven, to around 425 degrees. Place peppers directly on grate. Turn occasionally until the outside is all black and charred looking. Place peppers in a paper bag and allow to cool. Then peel all the burnt skin off of the peppers and discard the skin. What you have left is delicious roasted red peppers. Mmmm.
thehaphazardvegan 