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Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

With just five ingredients, dinner doesn’t get easier or more delicious than this creamy roasted red pepper rigatoni pasta. If you’ve got ten minutes and can open a jar, you can make this tonight.

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bowl of creamy roasted red pepper rigatoni pasta topped with fresh parmesan cheese and basil

This Quick & Easy Pantry Pasta is Your New BFF

There is a particular sort of low-key panic that sets in when everyone’s tummies are rumbling and the clock is ticking ever-closer to bedtime and you realize that you actually don’t have an answer the question that you just know you’re about to hear. As you mentally scan your pantry, someone speaks those three big little words—“what’s for dinner?”

If you’ve got five ingredients, you can make this unbelievably luscious creamy roasted red pepper pasta sauce. In fact, it’s worth just leaving these five ingredients on your grocery list at all times, because this is such a handy meal to be able to make when getting dinner on the table seems like a pipe dream. Here’s what you’ll need:

  1. Pasta! Pick a pasta with ridges if you can—we especially love rigatoni—to give the roasted red pepper cream sauce something to cling to.
  2. A jar of roasted red peppers. This one is self-explanatory, right?
  3. Stock. You can use vegetable stock to make this roasted red pepper pasta vegetarian, or use chicken stock if you prefer—either will add lots of flavor. You could also use water in a pinch.
  4. Heavy cream! No substitutes, please! With just five ingredients, there’s no room for subs.
  5. Fresh basil. If you don’t have fresh basil on-hand, you can still make a good red pepper cream sauce, but the fresh basil really does add a lot of fresh, bright flavor to this simple pantry pasta.
blender filled with heavy cream, roasted red peppers and fresh basil
blender filled with blended roasted red pepper sauce

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How To Make Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Smoky, sweet and slightly tangy, jarred roasted red peppers are a flavor-giving powerhouse. Here, we use this pantry favorite to make a simple homemade rigatoni pasta sauce taste restaurant-worthy. This roasted red pepper sauce is so fast—about ten minutes start-to-finish—and easy to make, it feels like cheating. If you can open a jar and open a carton, you can make this creamy roasted red pepper pasta sauce. Here’s what you do:

  • Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
  • Add your pasta and boil until it is al dente. We usually begin to taste for doneness after six minutes.
  • While the pasta cooks, combine heavy cream, stock, the jar of drained roasted red peppers, basil, salt and red pepper flakes in a blender and blend until smooth.
  • Drain the pasta.
  • Pour the red pepper cream sauce into the now-empty pasta pot, and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat.
  • Add the drained rigatoni and parmesan cheese to taste.
  • Stir and serve!
large skillet filled with roasted red pepper sauce, fresh parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes
large skillet filled with roasted red pepper sauce and cooked rigatoni pasta

Make It Perfect:

It’s hard to mess this recipe up—hard, but not impossible. There are a few things to know before you get started:

  1. Drain your jarred, roasted red peppers! Roasted red peppers are a super-versatile pantry staple. These meaty, sweet roasted bell peppers are usually seeded and then packed in water that has been seasoned with salt, sugar and often citric acid (a preservative). In this case, you definitely want to drain that liquid before using the peppers so that your creamy pepper sauce isn’t too watery.
  2. Salt your pasta water. This is such a simple dish, with flavor coming from just a few ingredients, so there’s no need for short cuts or skipped steps.
  3. Once you combine the creamy roasted red pepper sauce with the pasta and parmesan, stir for a few minutes over low heat to allow the flavors to really mingle. You want every last nook and cranny of that rigatoni (or penne, or farfalle) to be coated with your sweet, smoky, tangy cream sauce.
large bowl filled with creamy roasted red pepper rigatoni pasta topped with fresh parmesan and fresh basil

Tools You’ll Need:

white bowl filled with creamy roasted red pepper rigatoni pasta topped with fresh parmesan, fresh basil and red pepper flakes

Pasta To The Rescue!

This pantry superstar saves the day, everytime. Here are three of our very favorite easy weeknight pasta recipes:

close up of creamy roasted red pepper rigatoni

Couldn’t Be Easier, Right?

We really love to see how our recipes work for you guys, and we think this one is especially genius—do you? Snap a photo of your finished bowl or pot of our roasted red pepper pasta, and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

  • Serves: 6
  • Prep Time:  5 min
  • Cook Time:  15 min
  • Calories: 327

Ingredients

  • 1 pound rigatoni pasta or other tube shaped pasta
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ½ cup chicken or vegetable stock
  • 12 ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained
  • 8 fresh basil leaves, plus ¼ cup minced for serving
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
  • ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Method

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook the pasta until al dente according to the package directions. Drain.

  2. Meanwhile make the pasta sauce. Add the cream, stock, roasted red peppers, basil, salt and red pepper flakes to a blender. Blend until smooth.

  3. Transfer the sauce to the large pot and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Stir in the parmesan cheese and pasta and cook, stirring until creamy and the pasta is warmed through, about 2 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and serve hot topped with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories327
  • Protein14 g
  • Carbohydrates56 g
  • Total Fat5 g
  • Dietary Fiber2 g
  • Cholesterol12 mg
  • sodium459 mg
  • Total Sugars1 g

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

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  • Persephone

    I dislike red peppers so can I replace the peppers with regular spaghetti/pasta sauce?

    If you dislike red peppers, I would recommend a different recipe.

  • Jason

    Is it possible to do this recipe when there is no blender available?

    You could use an immersion blender or food processor instead but it does need to be blended.

  • Susanne

    I had the same issue with my cream getting chunky. I think it was because I blended too long and it was churning butter. LOL. Now that I add the cream at the very end and blend gently I have no issue. Wonderful recipe. We add hot Italian sausage to ours.

    Glad you were able to resolve it Susanne!

  • Carolyn

    Can I freeze this recipe in small batches

    We haven't tried but it should work fine!

  • Cindy

    Can this be baked?

    We have never tried it! Let us know if you try it out.

  • Lennie

    I was shocked at how easy this came together! I did get scared because, once I put it on the stove to warm up, it became super thin, like soup. Once I mixed it with the pasta and it had sat a little bit, it thickened up again. The flavor was great! My picky husband and son even liked it!

    Thanks, so glad you and your family loved it!

  • Elizabeth

    Love this recipe. I add peas to it for a pop of green. Great add!

    Thanks Elizabeth, so glad you loved it!

  • Sarah

    I actually roasted my own red peppers, and it's really good! Thanks for the recipe, it's a family favorite now.

    Thanks Sarah, so happy to hear it's a favorite!

  • Brenda

    This was amazing!! My boys devoured it! I added three cloves of garlic to blender and doubled the sauce. Sautéed some andouille sausage and tossed with pasta and sauce. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.

    YAY! We are so happy your family loved this Brenda! Can't wait to hear what other recipe you give a try!

  • Holly

    This recipe is great! I did tweak the recipe, however. I used the same pasta, but next time I think I will use bowtie or mini penne. I kept the sauce the same for the most part, juat added some extra stuff. I ordered a pickup order at Walmart for this dinner yesterday and the young guy gave me parsley instead of basil, but I used it instead.

    I doubled the sauce because we love saucy pasta dishes. While the sauce was warming I added in chicken breast (bite sized chicken breast I sauteed before fixing the pasta) and bite size bell peppes (2 yellow, 1 green, and 1 red that I also sauteed as I fixed the chicken). When the pasta was done heating, I added half of an 8 oz bag of finely shredded mozzarella and half of an 8 oz bag of finely shredded Italian. I drained and transferred the pasta to a huge bowl, poured the sauce over it, then stirred in the remaining of both cheeses. It was absolutely delicious!

    My husband and our two teen boys ate two bowls and myself and our two teen daughters ate a whole bowl ourselves. Next time I make this, I'm going to grab some warm Italian bread to serve with it.

    So glad I came across this recipe! It's so, so yummy! I've added it to my recipe book and predict I will make it again within two weeks cause my boys said they can't wait until I make it again. I made sure to make enough to have leftovers cause teens, especially boys, sure can eat haha! I'm going to check out other recipes on this site to try for our family. Thanks for sharing this one! 👩🏻‍🍳🥣

    Thanks Holly! We are so happy your family loved it and that you were able to add extra yummy stuff in!