Baked rotini with roasted red bell pepper sauce

I used to cook different variety of pasta as my kid love just any pasta. I baked rotini pasta with roasted red bell pepper sauce and cheese on top. It was flavourful and tasted awesome.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup – Rotini pasta
• 1 tsp – Olive oil
• 1/2 cup – Grated mozzarella and cheddar cheeses (any cheese of your choice)
• Salt as needed

For roasted red bell pepper sauce:

• 1 tbsp – Olive oil
• 1 no – Red bell pepper
• 1 no – Tomato (medium sized, chopped roughly)
• 3 nos – Garlic (chopped)
• 1/8 tsp – Dried oregano
• 1/8 tsp – Dried basil
• Pepper powder as needed
• Salt as needed

Preparation method:

Making of roasted red bell pepper sauce:

1. Wash and clean inner part of the red bell pepper, chop them as shown in the picture.
2. Roast red pepper in grill (I used panini making grill) or oven for 5 to 7 mins or until well cooked. Allow them to cool and chop them into big chunks.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped garlic and saute until they are slightly golden brown in color. Add chopped tomatoes and saute for few seconds.
4. Add grilled, chopped red bell pepper and saute for few seconds. Then add dried oregano, dried basil, required salt and pepper powder, mix everything well and cook for a minute. Allow them to cool and grind them in a mixer grinder to a coarse paste. Roasted red bell pepper sauce is ready.

Baking of pasta:

1. In a deep pan, heat water with a few drops of olive oil and bring it to a boil. Add rotini pasta along with enough salt and let it cook for 10 minutes or until it turns soft and firm. Now check the pasta and drain excess water using a colander and keep it aside.
2. Heat a pan, pour in the roasted bell pepper sauce and bring it to boil. Add cooked rotini pasta and mix everything well together, cook for 2 minutes. Switch off the stove and transfer this to a baking tray ( i used square tray) and allow them to cool.
3. Preheat oven 350 F or 180 C, meanwhile spread the grated cheese on the top of the pasta and get them ready.
4. Bake them for 20 to 25 mins or until cheese gets melted or until the top turn to golden color and bubbling. Let it stand for 5 minutes before serving. Baked pasta with roasted red pepper sauce is ready.

Notes:

• You can also use penne or ziti pasta in this recipe.
• You can replace mozzarella and cheddar cheese with parmesan cheese.
• While grinding for red pepper for sauce, grind it to a coarse paste not smooth paste.
• Do not over or under bake the pasta. Over baked pasta will be hard to chew while under baked pasta will be more sticky and raw.
• Baking time depends on the oven you use, mine took 25 mins to bake. 

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