Roasted Bell Pepper Sauce with Chicken and Pasta

You know what I love about summer? All the wonderful, fresh, and not to mention super-cheap produce.

The other day, I went to the local produce market, and all red, yellow, and orange bell peppers were 99 cents a pound. Needless to say, I got a little too excited, and bought way too many bell peppers. So mid-week, I was in desperate need of some ways to use the peppers other than just my traditional stir fry.



Luckily, I remembered reading once about a bell pepper sauce for pasta, and thought it would be the perfect way to use up a ton of my little veggies!


Roasted Bell Pepper Sauce
adapted from Epicurious

1.5 lbs red, yellow, and orange bell peppers
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 can tomato paste
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper, to taste

Roast all the bell peppers over an open flame. Since mine were little bell peppers, I had to do 2-3 of each color, but you may need less if you have larger peppers. Roast the peppers until the skin turns black, and immediately stick them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to let them steam and the skin soften.



After 10 minutes, remove them from the bowl and scrape the blackened skin off.

Remove the seeds and tops of the peppers, and put them in a food processor with the almonds, oil, tomato paste, vinegar, chipotle powder, and chicken stock.



Puree the mixture until smooth. Transfer it to a pot and bring to heat and let it sit on medium-low for 5-10 minutes.

Serve with pan-browned chicken over pasta, topped with fresh basil.



This is such a great summer dish to help use up all those peppers while they're affordable!