Oven Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce for Wheat Pasta

There was recently a sale on store brand ground wheat pasta at the local Shaws, so Eric and I bought home a few boxes of it.  Now, I've had Pastene ground wheat pasta, and couldn't really tell the difference in texture or flavor.  With Shaws brand, you can -- it's much rougher and the flavor's a bit sweeter.  This isn't a bad thing, although it does disqualify this pasta from having store bought sauce poured over it.  (Store bought sauce is far too sweet for this type of wheat pasta, and I find that the pureed tomato makes the noodles feel a bit slimy.)

However, if you want to get all fancy and start flinging  around the word "artesian" when you invite people over, these are the noodles and this is the sauce for you: a chunky, smoky sauce with a vague tinge of pesto resting on a bed of rustic wheat pasta.

Word to the wise: this was made in the oven in my apartment, so if you don't have a forty year old, rather eccentric oven, you might want to keep an eye on this sauce, or cook it at a slightly lower temperature.

3 red peppers, diced
1/2 cup Romano cheese
2 tomatoes, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
pesto sauce and/or fresh basil leaves to your taste
pepper to your taste
olive oil

Combine the diced vegetables, cheese, and spices in a ceramic pie plate large enough to accommodate them.  Preheat the oven for 350 degrees for ten minutes. Put the mixture in the oven and bake for an hour at 350 degrees or until the vegetables have browned and are soft enough to shove a fork through.

Winter Pesto

adapted from the always useful Clare's Corner Copia Cookbook.

3 tbsps of Classico Basil Pesto (you're supposed to use fresh basil, but I am broke and this is the closest commerical pesto I can find)
1 package frozen spinach*
4 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4th cup Romano Cheese
1 cup water

Defrost spinach. Combine spinach, pesto, black pepper, water and Romano in a blender. Hit grate for about a minute, then hit liquify until spinach is completely pureed.

Boil angel hair pasta, then drain it and mix it with the olive oil, add the spinach puree to the pasta. Heat pasta and pureed spinach together. Add other spices (curry powder, chili flakes, more pepper) to taste.

*you could use fresh, but I find frozen purees better

Roasted Carrots

2-4 cups chopped carrots

1/4th cup olive oil

2 tbsps crushed garlic

rosemary and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450F, cook at 400 for an hour. Best served on some sort of pasta.