This one goes out to all of you “one pot pasta” lovers out there. …And I know there are a lot of you! Allow me to introduce to you this amazing One Pot Roasted Red Pepper Pasta!
This pasta dish combines roasted red peppers, fire roasted tomatoes, a hefty dose of garlic, sweet Vidalia onion, and dried basil for a smoky sweet pasta that practically cooks itself. Using vegetable broth in place of water gives the pasta extra depth and takes care of most of the need for the usual added salt and seasonings. The ingredients all simmer together in one pot (yes, even the pasta!) and creates its own thick, silky sauce. There’s so much flavor here you’ll wonder why you ever boiled pasta in plain water.
Want more One Pot Pastas? Check out our One Pot Meals Archives!
Make it Creamy or Not.
The other great thing about this One Pot Roasted Red Pepper Pasta is that you can choose to make it creamy (like I did) or not. Once my pasta was finished cooking, I stirred in a few dollops of cream cheese until it melted into the sauce and made the whole pot luxuriously creamy. It’s a little indulgent with the cream cheese, but I also tasted it before adding the cheese and it was still amazing. So, you have the option of no cream cheese, full cream cheese, or even half cream cheese. It’s up to you!
Can I Add Meat?
Yes, chicken or Italian sausage would both go great with this recipe! To add chicken, simply dice up a chicken breast or two and sauté it in the pot before adding the remaining ingredients. Or you can add shredded rotisserie chicken after cooking the pasta. To add Italian sausage, simply brown some sausage in the pot before adding the rest of the ingredients.
Tips for One Pot Pasta Success:
One pot pasta recipes can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, they’re a breeze! Here are some tips to get you started:
- Use heavy, thick cookware to make sure the ingredients heat evenly.
- Make sure the pasta is simmering the whole time and adjust the heat as needed. If the heat is too low, the pasta will just get mushy.
- Stir to prevent the pasta from sticking, but not too often or you risk breaking down the pasta.
- Use your intuition. If the mixture dries up before the pasta is tender, add a splash more liquid. If the pasta is almost finished cooking and there is too much liquid, allow it to simmer without the lid for the last few minutes.
How to Store the Leftovers
This recipe makes a very large batch. I froze one serving last night to test the freeze/thaw cycle and it held up pretty well. The sauce was a bit more dry after reheating in the microwave, but the flavor was still great! Refrigerated portions will stay good in the refrigerator for about five days.
One Pot Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Servings 6 (1 1/3 cup each)Ingredients
- 5 cups vegetable broth ($0.60)
- 1 lb. Fettuccine ($1.00)
- 1 small Vidalia onion ($0.61)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1 12oz. jar roasted red peppers ($2.49)
- 1 15oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes ($1.29)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried basil ($0.07)
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional) ($0.03)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 4 oz. cream cheese (optional) ($1.08)
Instructions
- Thinly slice the onion and mince the garlic. Remove the red peppers from the liquid in the jar and then slice them into thin strips.
- In a large pot, combine the broth, onion, garlic, red pepper slices, diced tomatoes (with juice), basil, crushed red pepper, and some freshly cracked black pepper (10-15 cranks of a pepper mill). Stir these ingredients to combine. Break the fettuccine in half, then add it to the pot, attempting to submerge the pieces as much as possible.
- Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to high. As soon as the pot reaches a full boil, give it a quick stir to loosen any pieces that may have stuck to the bottom, return the lid, and turn the heat down to medium-low.
- Let the pot simmer on medium low for 10-12 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. Return the lid as quickly as possible after each stir. After ten minutes, test the pasta to see if it is al dente. Once the pasta is tender, remove it from the heat. (If the pasta becomes too dry before it is tender, simply add a small amount of water and continue to simmer.)
- Divide the cream cheese into tablespoon sized pieces, then add them to the pot. Stir the pasta until the cheese melts in and creates a smooth sauce (it will look lumpy at first, just keep stirring). Serve hot.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make One Pot Red Pepper Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Begin by slicing one Vidalia onion and mincing four cloves of garlic. Remove the peppers from a 12oz. jar of roasted red peppers, and slice them into thin strips.
Using both fire roasted red peppers AND fire roasted diced tomatoes gives the pasta a slightly smoky/sweet flavor.
Now it’s time to add everything to the pot. For the pictures, I added everything at one time, but it will help if you add everything in two steps. First add 5 cups of broth, the sliced onion, minced garlic, sliced red peppers, diced tomatoes (with the juices from the can), 1/2 Tbsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional), and some freshly cracked black pepper. Stir all those ingredients together, then break the pasta in half and submerge it under the liquid. Breaking the past in half helps it incorporate into the other ingredients better and makes it fit better in the pot (and under the liquid).
Place a lid on the pot and put it over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, stir the pot to loosen anything that has stuck to the bottom. Return the lid quickly, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let the pot simmer for 10-12 minutes. Stir the pot every couple of minutes or so to make sure nothing sticks, but always replace the lid quickly so that it keeps simmering and you don’t loose too much of the moisture. After 10-12 minutes, the pasta should be tender, but still slightly firm (al dente). Remove it from the heat.
If you want creamy pasta, add 4 oz. of cream cheese in dollops to the pot. I added half of the 8oz. package, but I bet it would still be pretty creamy if you cut that amount in half. It’s pretty flexible.
Stir the pot until the cream cheese is fully melted in. It may look a little chunky at first, but keep stirring and it will eventually become smooth and creamy.
Then eat this delicious and creamy bowl of One Pot Roasted Red Pepper Pasta. :)
My modifications: Used half a sweet onion, added a ton of salt (I am a fiend), chicken broth instead of vegetable, and I used spaghetti instead of fettuccine. I started with about 4 cups of liquid due to my smaller noodle and cooked with the lid off for about 10 minutes.
This pasta is smoky sweet goodness and deceptively easy! It was my first time making one pot pasta and I thought it was a breeze. There is nothing to it besides chopping an onion and putting everything in one pot. I haven’t made a recipe so quick in a long time. I highly recommend cooking with the lid off instead of draining liquid at the end so you don’t lose flavor. The cream cheese totally changes the game, I really didn’t think this pasta was anything special before adding it. This would be outstanding with chicken, but it’s a vegetarian powerhouse of a meal. The sauce is glossy and creamy, almost like a carbonara, but has the delicious tang of cream cheese. I took it off the heat while there was still some liquid pooling in the bottom to make sure there was enough sauce for reheating, which is what I’ll be doing with most of it. This is an awesome pantry staple meal I highly recommend.
This is the first recipe I’ve made from this site that didn’t work out. First of all, we ate it. It was a delicious dish. However, 5 cups of liquid was way too much. I drained almost 2 cups of liquid out of my pot before serving. I only added the cream cheese to my bowl, which helped soak up some of the liquid. Maybe that’s the key? I would make this again but adjusting the liquid to use much, much less.
I love one pot meals and this is a really good one! I like to make mine with a smaller noodle like rotini or ziti.
Look, I’m sorry, Beth. I’ve been meaning to write this review for over a year. THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING. SO easy, so much flavor ( even w/out cream cheese) and SO filling. I am a big fan of roasted red peppers and this is my BF and my favorite dish. We add chicken to it and its always perfect. I actually love all your content and trying to dive into the whole meal prep movement, so obvi I will start at your blog. Thanks again!!!
This recipe was delicious – I couldn’t find red peppers at my grocery store so I substituted with sundried tomatoes with Italian seasoning. So good!
This was delicious. I have a problem following recipes exactly. Even with my variations my family and i loved it. I used a small amount of sundried tomatoes and added leftover spinach. Soooooooooo gooooooood!
Oh delicious!
This was so tasty. The only substitute was to use chicken broth. There was a lot of liquid left when the noodles were done and it was soupy, not saucy. I was worried that it would get mushy so I ended up draining it and catching the really delicious liquid and pouring it over the seconds. It was a bit clunky but even so this recipe was great and I will make it again.
Oh interesting! Sorry about that but I’m glad to hear that it still turned out for you.
Great recipe! I followed everything listed, but I used Better than Bouillon instead of the broth. I put in 5 cups of water and 5 tsp of BtB (which their online calculator recommended) but I found that it produced a bit too much extra liquid. I drained out about a cup of liquid after boiling but before adding the cream cheese and it came out fine. I’ll probably go with 3 cups of broth in the future. Thanks for the great recipe and meal plan!
Good to know David. Thank you for sharing!
Understated vegetarian homestyle comfort food. After my first bite, I was going to give it four stars (not as much initial “wow” factor as some of the other recipes I’ve tried), but when I couldn’t stop eating long enough to rate it I realized that was underselling the sweet simplicity of this dish! I found there to be a bit too much liquid broth in this recipe (but I may have misjudged the amount of pasta I used) so next time I will cook with the lid off and just add more liquid if needed. Definitely a dish worth a repeat!
WOW! Thank you Catherine!
My favorite recipe I have off here by far! I used what I had on hand, so I subbed chicken broth and fresh red peppers (I broiled them whole and it worked perfectly!) I also added sliced italian sausage and it was AMAZING. The last bowl of leftovers got fought over!
Could some good humans translate the “1 12 oz. jar roasted red peppers and
1 15 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes” to ml or gram? I can not figure out these numbers – is it 1,12 or 1 and 1/2 or anything else. They look so odd to me. I would be very grateful :)
It’s one jar that is 12 ounces in volume. Unfortunately I don’t know what the equivalent is in grams.
Thank you, Beth! I had found out that it was something around 340 grams and made the recipe with half of the components for 2 people. I also replaced roasted tomatoes with the diced in herbs and added 1/2 tbsp smoked pepper in powder instead to increase the grill taste. It was really great! :)
Made this recipe tonight. Deelish!! Used egg noodles (had way too many in my pantry) and used chicken tenderloins that I had slow cooked and shredded for several meals this week. I also used chicken broth from slow cooker instead of vegetable stock. Unfortunately I had WAY too many egg noodles in there and just cooked it longer. I also doubled the spices (due to all the extra noodles) and added fresh basil on top.
I have just recently found this site and look forward to trying more recipes. I’ve already made the Southwest Chicken for the second time this week and loved it as well. Thanks for lessening the stress and providing great recipes!
Yum…..making this for the second time. Totally addicted! Followed recipe to the “T”; came out perfect and delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Made this for dinner tonight, and it was a big hit, even with the kids! So easy and so fast! Thank you so much for the recipe :D
I have made this for my family several times. It is a big hit! Thank you so much for a new family favorite! :)