Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
This Roasted Red Pepper Sauce will take pasta night to the next level! It’s irresistibly creamy and cheesy with an incredible smoky, sweet flavor. Ready to serve in just 30 minutes with your favorite noodles or even spaghetti squash for the perfect comfort food feast.
Delicious Roasted Red Pepper Sauce is beyond creamy, filled with flavor and so easy to make. It’s perfect as a pasta sauce with chicken, shrimp, fish or even meatballs. The sautéed shallots and garlic add a complex slightly sweet and savory flavor. Then, the roasted red peppers are blended with the sautéed vegetables, chicken stock and seasonings. Next, the parmesan cheese and heavy cream really take things to the next level. It’s perfectly rich and creamy, and coats the pasta beautifully!
Not only is this sauce so incredibly delicious, it’s also super easy to whip up, so you can enjoy these amazing flavors in a flash! We also love dipping breadsticks or garlic bread into it! This sauce has quickly become one of my family’s favorites. Serve it with an Italian salad and some bread for a complete meal that will always get rave reviews!
This sauce is an absolute winner. Simple, easy and so versatile. Thank you.
— Danielle
Ingredients needed
One of our favorite things about this roasted red pepper sauce recipe is that it requires minimal ingredients but is SO delicious and satisfying. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Butter: Adds richness to the sauce while sautéing the shallot and garlic. It won’t be quite as rich, but you can sub with extra virgin olive oil.
- Shallots: Shallots are milder and sweeter than regular yellow or white onions. They also have a touch of sharpness and a hint of garlic, which is delicious in sauce recipes. You can sub with one small onion, if preferred.
- Garlic: Sautéed for incredible savory flavor.
- Roasted red peppers: For convenience, this recipe uses roasted red peppers from a jar, but you can definitely make them fresh if you prefer! You will need about 10 red bell peppers if you decide to roast them in the oven yourself.
- Chicken stock: Adds extra flavor and also gives the sauce a nice consistency. For a vegetarian option, use vegetable broth or stock.
- Seasonings: Salt, pepper and dried basil enhances and brings out all of the flavors.
- Heavy cream: For an amazing, rich creamy texture.
- Parmesan cheese: Use freshly grated parmesan cheese from a block for maximum cheesiness and flavor.
- Pasta: Choose your favorite pasta noodles to serve with the sauce. We really like penne or rigatoni because the sauce gets trapped inside making each bite more flavorful!
How to make this recipe
Making homemade pasta sauce is surprisingly so easy! All you need to do here is sauté veggies, blend your ingredients and then heat over the stove. This is not much more effort than using sauce from a jar! And it tastes so much more delicious! Here’s how it comes together:
- Sauté: In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Sauté shallots or onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Blend: Remove from heat. Pour cooked onions and garlic into a high-powered blender or food processor. Add in red peppers, chicken stock, kosher salt, pepper and basil. Blend until smooth. You can add in a little cream to get things moving.
- Heat and add cream: Pour back into hot pan and stir in cream. Don’t let it boil or the cream will curdle. Cook over medium-low heat.
- Cook pasta: Meanwhile, boil pasta in salted water until al dente.
- Serve: Once pasta is cooked, pour into the sauce along with parmesan cheese and toss. Taste, adjust salt and pepper and serve!
Expert tips
Roasted red pepper pasta sauce can easily be customized to include your favorite ingredients and your taste preference. Here are a few easy options:
- Add tomatoes: Try making this sauce with tomatoes for a more classic flavor with a bit more sweetness and acidity. You can add a 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes to the blender with the roasted red peppers.
- Make it spicy: If you’d like to turn up the heat, add a tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes to your sauce at a time until you’ve reached your desired flavor.
- Half & half: To decrease the calories and fat, you can use half and half instead of heavy whipping cream. It will give the sauce a nice creaminess, but may not be quite as thick and rich.
- Use for dipping: We love using this as a tasty dip! You can serve it with crostini or breadsticks for an Italian appetizer. You can also use this to top sandwiches or eggs.
- Serving suggestions: Complete your meal with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast and chopped fresh parsley or fresh basil. Whip up a fresh Italian salad and garlic bread for a complete dinner! Your family will love it!
Roasting red peppers
Here’s how to roast your own peppers, if you’d like. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Cut about 10 red bell peppers in half and remove the stems, seeds and membranes. Lay the peppers on a baking sheet lined with foil, cut side down. Roast the red peppers for 15-20 minutes or until the skins are very dark and have collapsed. Once the skins are blackened remove the peppers from the oven. When they’re cool enough to handle, you can peel the skins off and discard them.
Frequently asked questions
This particular recipe uses jarred roasted red peppers combined with sautéed shallot, garlic, chicken stock, cream and parmesan cheese. It’s a simple recipe, yet yields so much flavor! Some recipes also include red wine vinegar or other vinegars to add a depth of flavor and a bit of acidity to the sauce. If you’d like to add this in, start with 1 teaspoon, taste and add more as desired.
If your peppers are bitter, the sauce can easily taste bitter. Typically, roasted red peppers from a jar will not taste bitter, but it’s a good idea to taste them before making the sauce.
This recipe does not call for sugar because it’s not overly acidic, and it tastes balanced without the need for sugar. However, if you’d like to sweeten the sauce a bit, feel free to add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar to the mixture in the blender.
Variations
While this dish is incredible as-is, you can easily adapt it to your taste preference by adding other ingredients and using what you have available. Here’s some ideas:
- Pasta: Use any favorite noodles for serving! Some of our most used varieties are: farfalle, rotini, ziti, spaghetti, rigatoni or penne. Or use a healthier pasta alternative such as chickpea cavatappi, veggie rotini, or lentil penne. Use gluten-free pasta as needed.
- Add protein: We love that this sauce can easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock, but adding crumbled beef, sausage, or turkey makes it super hearty and filling!
- Vegetables: For more nutrition, mix in some roasted or sautéed veggies such as broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus or zucchini. You could even add in a few handfuls of spinach.
- Extra add-ins. You can stir in chopped or sliced kalamata olives, chopped sun dried tomatoes, chopped artichokes, and/or pine nuts.
- Vegan: In need of a vegan recipe? Try this vegan roasted red pepper sauce!
Serving suggestions
When we enjoy roasted red pepper pasta, we typically keep the sides pretty simple because this dish is really filling. Here are some of my favorite pairing options:
- Salad: A green salad, such as this Italian salad always goes well with any type of heavy Italian pasta. You could also make a fresh green salad by tossing mixed greens with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then, add toppings such as red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and croutons.
- Vegetables: Either roasted Brussels sprouts or roasted broccoli would be delicious as a side dish.
- Bread: Don’t let any of the irresistible creamy red pepper sauce go to waste! Sop it up with a crusty loaf of your favorite bread. We love this Italian bread recipe.
Storage recommendations
Now that you have created a tasty sauce, here’s how to store it so you can heat it up and enjoy it later!
- In the refrigerator: Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 to 5 days.
- Reheating: When ready to use, reheat sauce over the stove on medium heat until warmed through, stirring occasionally. Pour in some broth, cream, almond milk, regular milk or water as needed to loosen the sauce for desired consistency. You can also reheat small servings in the microwave.
- Freezing: This sauce freezes well! Store pasta with sauce in a freezer-safe airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
More pasta recipes
Looking for more easy pasta recipes? Give these family-friendly recipes a try:
- Italian Sausage Pasta
- Creamy Chicken Pasta
- One Pot Pasta
- Crockpot Lasagna
- Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Creamy Pasta Sauce
- Lemon Pasta
Get all of my pasta recipes here!
If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment and if your family loves this recipe as much as mine does, be sure to give it a five star ⭐️ rating! Also, tag @kimscravings on Instagram with a picture of your creation. Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy delicious recipes straight to your inbox.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 shallots or 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 24 oz roasted red peppers (2 jars), drained
- 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable broth
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2-3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 16 ounces pasta cooked according to package directions to al dente
Instructions
- In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Sauté shallots or onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Remove from heat. Pour cooked onions and garlic into a high-powered blender. Add in red peppers, chicken stock, salt, pepper and basil. Blend until smooth. You can add in a little cream to get things moving.
- Pour back into hot pan and stir in cream. Don’t let it boil or the cream will curdle. Cook over low to medium heat.
- Meanwhile, boil pasta until al dente.
- Once pasta is cooked, pour into the sauce along with parmesan cheese and toss. Taste, adjust salt and pepper and serve!
Notes
Storing leftovers
- In the refrigerator: Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 to 5 days.
- Reheating: When ready to use, reheat sauce over the stove on medium heat until warmed through, stirring occasionally. Pour in some broth, cream, almond milk, regular milk or water as needed to loosen the sauce for desired consistency. You can also reheat small servings in the microwave.
- Freezing: This sauce freezes well! Store pasta with sauce in a freezer-safe airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
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This sauce is an absolute winner. Simple, easy and so versatile. Thank you.
What a brilliant and beautiful sauce. I loved the sweet-smoky flavors.
Added some spinach, chopped chicken cutlets and mozzarella cheese, AMAZING!
Very good recipe! I made this sauce along with your recipe for turkey meatballs. Thank you for these wonderful recipes!!
Made this last night to serve over cheese ravioli and it was fabulous. Am going to try the remaining sauce on pizza tonight. Thanks!
I just made this for the first time last night and it turned out great! I accidently picked up fat free half and half instead of cream, which I don’t care for, so I left it out and it was still incredibly delicious. I don’t think it needs the cream at all! I served it with gnocchi and will definitely make again.
Great flavor for such little effort. The second time I made the sauce I added some canned tomatoes & some good old balsamic vinegar, which added depth with little extra effort.
This was such a delicious sauce! Great way to change up spaghetti night! And I love trying new sauces!
This is such a great recipe. So creamy and perfectly sweet. It is going over everything!
Delicious. Added a few veggies (mushrooms, onions, chopped spinach, etc.) and it was so good over pasta.
Fantastic sauce!! I added 1 tablespoon of lite brown sugar to brighten the sweetness and then second time with another batch, added some thai chilies to it for a sweet/spice/savory balance.
I just made this sauce today and it’s delicious!!!! my boyfriend loved it too, I roasted some red bell peppers and garlic I had at home and I poured the sauce into penne pasta with lots of spinach. We ate it all!! thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe, I can’t wait to make it again 🙂
I made this today and it came out great. I used Silk Whipping Cream alternative at the end cause I’m lactose intolerant. Thanks for a really easy, delicious sauce !!
This sauce is absolutely amazing! Will definitely make again!