Roasted Red Pepper Pesto
This roasted red pepper pesto is a lightened up version of my favorite spicy roasted red pepper pesto, but it’s made without cheese or cream.
Why you’ll love this red pepper pesto pasta
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love pesto. I have at least 8 pesto recipes on this site, and I’m always testing out new ones. But, one of my all time favorites is my spicy roasted red pepper pesto. It’s a really old recipe, so please ignore all the photos you see, but it’s an amazing recipe.
Since we gave up dairy, I haven’t attempted to make it, under the assumption that it couldn’t possible taste good without cheese or heavy cream. But, I was wrong. It’s actually just as good without the cream. It took a few small tweaks, but I made this dairy free roasted red pepper pesto work.
Replacing the cheese was the hard part because it provides a decent amount of umami and saltiness, but by increasing the amount of nuts and upping the salt by just a little fixes all that. You could swap the extra nuts (about 2 1/2 tablespoons) with nutritional yeast if you have it, but we didn’t have any when I made this.
And, it turns out that the cream didn’t do much more than loosen the sauce and provide a bit of creamy texture, and you can accomplish that by saving a bit of the starchy pasta water before you drain the pasta.
If you like this recipe, you have to try this roasted tomato pasta sauce, and this romesco sauce and this chicken pomodoro.
Searching for more pasta recipes? cauliflower alfredo sauce / chicken bacon ranch pasta / creamy pasta carbonara recipe / corn pasta
Ingredients & substitutions
- Roasted red peppers – Don’t buy pickled peppers. I can’t tell you how many times I have made this mistake because I didn’t read the package. I think I have a full peck of pickled peppers in my pantry now. Just call me Peter Piper.
- Pasta – This recipe makes enough to toss two pounds of pasta. You can freeze the remainder, or you can keep it for up to two weeks in the fridge.
- Almonds – You don’t need to buy slivered almonds but it makes the blending process easier for your food processor and quicker for you. Plus you will likely end up with a better consistency to your sauce.
- Fresh basil leaves – This is a great recipe for using basil you have in your garden when it’s in season!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make this red pepper pesto pasta recipe
Make the pesto. Add pesto ingredients to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Divide sauce into two containers. Remember: You only need one for the recipe, freeze the other and make it in a month or so, you will thank me on a busy day!
Cook the pasta. In a large pot of salted, boiling water, cook pasta to al denté, according to package instructions. Reserve about 1/4 cup reserved pasta water, drain and set aside.
Combine pasta with sauce. Stir pasta with sauce, adding about 2 tablespoons of pasta water at a time until pasta is well coated and sauce is creamy.
Ingredients
- 1 cup roasted red bell peppers
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 large garlic clove (peeled)
- 2/3 cup slivered almonds
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth.
- When serving with pasta, stir in the about 1/4 cup reserved pasta water when tossing the pesto and pasta together.
