Description
Red peppers, roasted to bring out their naturally sweet flavor, and then blended with a creamy parmesan sauce, linguine and fresh spinach.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 red peppers chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pound linguine
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic pressed through a garlic press
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whipped cream cheese
- 2 cups of milk
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated finely
- 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- In a large pot, bring well salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook according to directions on the box.
- Arrange chopped red peppers in a single layer on a baking sheet, and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Roast red peppers for 12-15 minutes. You should start to see some blackening on the edges.
- In the meantime, use a medium saucepan to melt butter over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Sprinkle flour over the garlic and whisk for one minute.
- Whisk in cream cheese until melted and smooth.
- Gradually whisk in milk, and allow to come to a slow boil, simmering for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened.
- Stir in parmesan cheese. Turn heat to low.
- When red peppers are roasted, you can either add them directly to the creamy white sauce, or you can run them through a food processor. I pulsed my red peppers real quick just to help release some of their flavor and then added them to the sauce. But I wanted to leave them a little chunky for texture. If you have kiddos who think they do not care for red peppers, pulse the peppers until they are smooth and they will never know!
- When pasta is al dente, remove from heat, drain the water, and return to pot.
- Add creamy roasted red pepper sauce to the pasta and stir to coat. Add chopped spinach and mix together. It might seem like the sauce is too runny, but it will thicken slightly after a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serving
- Calories: 340
- Sugar: 3.9g
- Sodium: 512mg
- Fat: 17g
- Saturated Fat: 9.1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6.7g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 35g
- Fiber: 2.4g
- Protein: 11g
- Cholesterol: 42mg