Penne Arribiatta alla Bella

Penne Arribiatta alla Bella

I know that in all cases for Chef’s – less is best but I am a person who loves strong flavors so most of my food will have plenty of ingredients, this is one of them. It’s packed with flavor and the end result is a thick, red, rich tomato base sauce that can be used for endless recipes.

Ingredients:
1 Brown Onion, chopped
3-4 Cloves Garlic crushed
1-2 small red chilli, washed and sliced
2 fresh tomatoes
1 Can (400g) crushed tomatoes
1 Red Capsicum (pepper) roasted in the oven and sliced once peeled and deceeded
¼ cup Red wine
½ tsp powder vegetable stock
Fresh Basil
400g penne pasta
Handful of fresh parmesan cheese

Method:
Fry oil in a pan and add the onion, garlic and red chili. Cook gently for 5 minutes until soft. Add the fresh tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the wine, stock powder and the tin tomatoes and cook for around 20 minutes with a lid so as not to dry out.

Meanwhile, place the cleaned capsicum/pepper into a heated oven on around 200C. Cook for 20 minutes until the skin is black but not burnt. Remove from the oven and place into a bowl. Cover with glad wrap/cling film and leave for around 10 minutes. Remove the glad wrap/cling film, peel the skin away from the capsicum/pepper, remove the seeds and slice. Add this to the tomato base. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Place all of the above into a food blender and blitz (you can use a hand held blender). Place back on the heat to heat through. Add some freshly chopped basil and freshly ground black pepper.

Boil up some water and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.
Drain the pasta, add your desired amount of the sauce to the pasta. I like a lot of sauce so I always add plenty. Top with Fresh Parmesan.