Pasta with a quick roast sauce !

That's it! Its here... the days are getting shorter and darker.. the sun has started playing hide and seek.. leaves have turned colour and trying to hold on to their life.. while some have withered away... now when I hear a cock-a-doodle-do in the distance and I look out of the window, its still dark and foggy! Any guesses?? The Winter is here!! That time of the year when all you want to do is keep the fire on.. snuggle up on the sofa with your favourite blanket and sip a big mug of steaming cocoa :) Does anyone call it cocoa now a days???  May be not.. Hot chocolate sounds equally good to me :-)

    To tell you the truth, I got up today feeling very nostalgic as was waiting impatiently for my first cuppa of the day. Today we finished almost an year in Derbyshire and are heading back to London the following week. The time we spent here had some dull but also some very beautiful moments.. when I am just about to leave I have made some awesome friends.. friends I think that I will have for life. I will leave this place with a lot of mixed feelings and a heavy heart. It was all very misty, it also reminded me of home and day we were heading to England, come to think of it in past 3 years we have been moving like vagabonds, after every 6 months :-) When one of our colleague's signed our leaving card at work he wrote, I am sure you have gypsy blood in you, will you ever settle down! and you know what I thought? I wish!

    On the other hand moving and living in so many places has been a blessing in disguise, we would have never been able to see such beautiful places and meet such lovely and warm people.
    I just smiled to myself and said one can't have roots and wings :-)

    I shrugged all the melancholic thoughts saw the sun rising and shining brightly, marched out of the door to buy the news paper. I said hello to this elderly lady who I happen to bump into every Saturday morning, and we started our conversation by saying, isn't it a chilly morning?? We nodded and went our ways. On my way back home for some bizarre reason I kept thinking of chillies and thought why not make it all about chillies today :) So here it is my three pepper and chilli roast pasta :-0) I promise you it tastes as good as it sounds.

Here is what you need to make this delicious pasta sauce

1. Red, Orange and Yellow peppers.
2. 1 red hot chilli
3. a pinch of chilli flakes
4. a good pinch of freshly grated pepper
5. a sprig or Rosemary and Lemon Thyme
6. 4 fat cloves of garlic.
7. 1 white or red onion.
8. Olive Oil
9. Parmesan Cheese
10. Chilli Oil
11. Rock Slat flakes (regular salt will do)
12. A good bunch of fresh basil

Pasta:

I used Tagliatelle. Use any kind of Pasta you have in your larder.

Here's how you roast and cook :-) This serves 2 hungry people and takes about 30 mins from oven to the dish.

Turn on the Over to 180 degrees C and let it gain the temp while you prep the veggies.

1. Cut the peppers in big size pieces and spread them out in the roasting dish. Try and cut them evenly so that they roast evenly.
2. Cut the the cloves in half with skin on and dot them between the peppers.
3. Cut onion with skin on, in chunks and tuck them in.
4. strew the leaves of rosemary and thyme off the sprig and scatter them around.
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper and chilli flakes.
6. Drizzles over some olive oil and toss every thing well.
7. Bung the roasting dish in the oven top rack for about 30 mins.
8. The veggies will come out slight burnt but crisp and nicely roasted.
9. Let the veggies cool down.
10. Remove the garlic and onion peels and any sprigs of herbs you have.
11. Transfer the roasted vegetables to a pot and blend.
12. Set the sauce aside.
13. Cook the pasta with salt in boiling water al dente for about 7-8 mins. That's how I like it. If you like it well done boil it for about 10 mins. 
14. Remove a cup of pasta water and strain the rest.
15. Transfer the sauce in a pan with olive oil and let it simmer for a while.
16. Add pasta to the sauce and toss till the sauce coats the pasta well.
17. Transfer the pasta to a serving dish. Garnish with grated cheese, basil and drizzle over some chilli out to raise the chilli note to the top :-) You can tone the chilli in the sauce down as you like. If you follow this recipe you will have a medium hot sauce.

There you have a steaming hot pasta dish waiting to be polished :-) This bowl of goodness made me forget all my sorrows, I hope it cheers up too if you like me get in one of those melancholy moods :-0)

Bon A Petit!!!