Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta

Remember the swaps I used to participate in?  Well, the format has now changed (and for the better!).  Instead of being assigned a recipe that I might not be too excited to make, we are now given the theme and a blog and we get to choose what recipe within the theme to make.  I love this change, because there have been one or two recipes that I had been assigned that I wasn't so thrilled about (and you could probably tell from my posts about them).  So I jumped at the chance to participate in this month's swap under the new rules.

The theme for this month was Vegetarian.  I was assigned A Taste of Home Cooking, which happens to be the blog of the swap organizer, Sarah (no pressure, right?!).  I went through her vegetarian recipes (love that she has a "vegetarian" label, hopefully the gal who was assigned my blog knew to look at anything labeled dairy or parve for an easy search!).  A few jumped out at me, but after a little deliberation and an e-mail of my top choices to my husband, we settled on Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta, which is a recipe from Marcus Samuelsson.  We're big Marcus fans from watching him on Chopped and have eaten at his restaurant Red Rooster, so we were excited to try this out.

Neither of us are huge roasted red pepper fans, but we decided to give this one a shot since we liked everything else about it.  I wasn't 100% sure how much "3 peppers" was, so I just bought a 12oz jar and used that.  Maybe that wasn't as much as I was supposed to use, but for us it was the perfect amount.  As my husband wanted me to say - if you usually don't like roasted red peppers, don't shy away from this recipe!

And the pasta was even better the next day for lunch!  I warmed mine up, but my husband ate his cold (I've mentioned before his fear of using his office's microwave, yes?) and he said it was just as good right out of the fridge.

I'm very glad that I chose this recipe to make.  And I'm even more excited to see what I get to make in the next swap!

Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Pasta (recipe by Marcus Samuelsson, submitted to the swap by Taste of Home Cooking)

Ingredients
1/2 lb pasta (I used fettuccine)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 cup half and half
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
3 roasted red bell peppers , coarsely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 handful basil
8 oz artichoke hearts, cut into quarters

Directions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and reserve.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute.
- Add the half and half, goat cheese, Parmesan and roasted red peppers and simmer until the cheese is melted. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and add the basil. Puree with an immersion blender or food processor. Add in the chopped artichoke hearts.
- Toss the pasta with the sauce and serve immediately.