Hot or Cold Roasted Red Pepper Farfalle Salad

Hot or Cold Roasted Red Pepper Farfalle Salad

This simple recipe does double duty as either a hot side dish or as a cold pasta salad; in fact if you make a double batch, you could enjoy the hot salad with a weekend barbeque and then have the leftovers cold as a weekday lunch. Of course you can always warm it up again to have with some quickly grilled chicken, or pork chops as a terrific quick weekday dinner.

The recipe is great as is with the fresh flavor of the roasted red pepper taking center stage but I also like to spice it up with sriracha sauce, hot pepper sauce or even cayenne pepper. Use as much or as little to suit your own taste.

Serves 4

• 2 large or 3 medium roasted red peppers

During the summer months when fresh peppers are more plentiful and less expensive, I like to roast the peppers on the grill, getting them almost black before popping them into a Ziploc bag to sweat it out for 5-10 minutes. The charred skins are then very easily removed and discarded leaving the roasted flavor behind. I have also used good quality bottled roasted red peppers at other times of the year which is very good too.

Skin and de-seed the roasted peppers, chop them roughly and add them to a blender or food processor. Puree the peppers until smooth along with:

• pinch salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 sprigs of fresh oregano (or 1 tbsp dried)
• 1 clove minced garlic

The recipe does not call for any oil but you can add a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil if you choose.

• 1/2 pound dry farfalle pasta (cooked al dente)

Cook the pasta in salted water and drain but reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add the reserved water along with the pureed pepper sauce to the cooked pasta and toss well to coat.