Sunday Suppers: Red Pepper Sauce

Last night, we had roast chicken, and as I mentioned before, there are lots of leftovers.  So today, I thought I'd share one of the ways we use the leftover roast chicken.  This particular time, we served up the chicken sliced on top of whole wheat pasta, topped with roasted red pepper sauce.  Lucky for me, I had made a big batch of the red pepper sauce a month ago and had some ready in the freezer that just had to be heated up.  So this meal took all of 10 minutes to put together.

I first attempted roasted red pepper sauce about 2 years ago.  It has undergone some modifications since then, I think for the better.  It is actually a pretty simple sauce, but tastes really fancy.  

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

2 large red bell peppers

1 garlic clove

1 small can tomato sauce

1/4 c. whipping cream

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/8-1/4 c. grated romano cheese (or parmesan)

Directions:

1.  Cut peppers in half, remove stems and seeds.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place pepper halves cut side down on the sheet.  Place in an oven at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until the outside skin in bubbly and black.  Remove from oven and place the peppers in a heavy ziplock bag or brown paper lunch sack to steam.  When cool enough to touch, remove peppers and peel of the skin (should easily peel off after the steaming).  

2.  Place peppers and garlic clove in a food processor and process until blended.  Stream in tomato sauce and whipping cream.

3.  Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan.  Whisk in red pepper mixture.  Salt and pepper to taste and heat through.  Just before serving, stir in cheese until melted.

Serving suggestion:  Serve with chicken (we like breaded best, but it is also good with roasted or grilled chicken) on top of your favorite pasta.