MEAL PREP: Quick Red Pepper Pasta
Ingredients:
2 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1 jar of roasted red peppers
¼ cup of sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup of tahini, cashew butter, or almond butter
4 tbsp olive oil
1 box or 1 cup of fresh basil leaves
1 box of uncooked pasta of your choice
1 cup of reserved pasta water
Handful of spinach
4 field roast sausages
½ cup of shredded parmesan cheese or vegan cheese
Salt and red pepper flakes to taste
Instructions:
Roughly chop your shallots and garlic cloves. Slice the field roast sausages into pieces, which you will be crumbling later so they do not have to be cut uniformly.
On a pan, saute the aromatics with 2 tbsp of oil for about 2 minutes or until they’re softened and fragrant. Once they’re cooked, remove from the pan and add to a blender for later.
On that same pan using the remaining oil, add the sausages and break them up into crumbles with your spatula. The sausage will take a few minutes to cook.
In the meantime, place a large pot on high heat to boil 4 cups of water and add the noodles once the water is bubbling. Allow the noodles to cook until they’re al dente (slightly undercooked). Once they are almost done depending on the box’s instructions, save 1 cup of the pasta water for later. Strain the pasta from the water and place it back into the pot.
Take the roasted red peppers out of the jar and chop them into smaller pieces. Place them into the blender with the cooked shallots, garlic, tahini, 2 tbsp of olive oil, torn basil leaves, and half of the pasta water then blend until smooth.
Pour the sauce into the pot with the cooked noodles and stir everything together on low heat. This will allow the sauce to thicken with the starchy reserved pasta water from earlier.
After you feel some heat resonating from the sauce and pasta, add the shredded cheese and turn the heat up slightly to low-medium. Add the rest of the pasta water and spinach then stir slowly yet carefully until all the noodles are coated in the sauce well, the cheese has melted, and the spinach has wilted. Lastly, add a dash of salt and red pepper to your liking.
You can store this in the fridge for a week as meal prep or this can be enjoyed immediately.