Pasta makes me happy. Doesn’t it make everyone happy, though? If your answer to that is no…what happened? Who hurt you in life?

Pasta is comfort food at its finest. Tender, bready little pasta noodles coated in rich, creamy, slightly tangy roasted red pepper and goat cheese sauce. IT IS LYFE.

Here’s your process:

Roast your peppers
Peel your peppers
Cook your pasta
Puree your peppers in a blender with some half and half and olive oil
Add the pepper sauce to your pasta
Stir in goat cheese

DEVOUR FOR DAYS – breakfast, lunch, and dinner yo. Eat it plain as its own meal, eat it with a side salad, eat it with some grilled chicken stirred into the pasta – eat it however you want, friends, because it will be delicious in any shape, form, and size!

My husband and his family are all goat cheese haters. BIG time goat cheese haters – it is almost impossible to sneak one past ’em. Which is no fun for me because it means I can’t cook with goat cheese since my husband detects it in the slightest form and raises protest. I shouldn’t complain – he basically eats anything with very few exceptions, goat cheese being one of them.

I just happen to love goat cheese, so sometimes I have to just add it to only my food if I’m in a particularly goat cheesy mood. Sometimes the goat cheese mood just strikes, ya know? And who am I to say no to that creamy deliciousness when it is calling out my name so clearly?

There isn’t very much goat cheese in this sauce – it’s definitely not a prevalent flavor. It just adds a little bit of tang and some rich creaminess to the sauce. So I left that little ingredient detail out when Seth was trying this pasta, and he didn’t even notice. Such a small personal victory. Which was shortly ruined after the first few bites when I told him there was goat cheese and then he magically started to be weirded out by the pasta…which proves the hatred of goat cheese is at least slightly a mental thing!

I should have just kept it to myself.

So Seth and I are waking up at the lovely hour of 3:30 am – I’m sorry, that’s AM in case you didn’t hear me the first time – tomorrow morning to catch a flight to Las Vegas for an anniversary trip. My brother and sister-in-law live in Vegas, so we are going to take one day/evening to ourselves to celebrate our anniversary and then we will spend the rest with them.

We are super excited about it! Except for a few things…one – the absurdly early wake up (have I mentioned I am the polar opposite of “morning person”? If you can even consider that “morning” yet…) and two – leaving our little chunk for almost five whole days.

We like to take trips away from Ford because it’s good to have some adult, married people time, but that doesn’t mean we don’t miss that little cutie every second we are gone! My mom is staying back and watching him…hopefully she sends lots of pictures…mom, if you’re reading this, remember to send lots of pictures 😉.

I’ll tell you all about the trip next week when we get home! Until then, make this pasta and we can virtually celebrate its deliciousness together ❤. Talk to you on Monday, internet friends!

Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Pasta

Author: Annie Chesson
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 30
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients

4 red peppers
1 pound rigatoni pasta (any other pasta will work just as well!)
1/2 cup half and half
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 oz goat cheese
Basil, sliced for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Place your peppers on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet, flip the peppers over, and roast for another 5 minutes or until the skin is very charred all the way around
Remove the peppers from the oven, place in a large bowl, and cover with saran wrap. Let the peppers steam for 5-10 minutes
When the 5-10 minutes are up, remove the saran wrap and peel the charred skin off the peppers (it should come off super easily). Slice the peppers, leaving behind the ribs and seeds, and add to a blender with your half and half, olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Blend until the peppers have pureed into a super smooth sauce
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat and add your rigatoni. Cook according to package instructions and then drain in a colander. Add the drained pasta back to the pot
Pour in your red pepper sauce and stir in your goat cheese
Season to taste with salt and pepper, garnish with sliced basil, and serve