Roasted Red Pepper with Chicken & Noodles
Leftovers can be magic–especially versatile leftovers like roasted red pepper and chicken. Just add a bit of pasta and olive oil, sprinkle with parsley, and poof! you have a delicious meal. With a bit of purposeful overproduction, in fact, you can create your own healthy freezer meals/leftovers. (But be sure to stick with your original plan and actually save the extra portions. Eating them all at one sitting defeats the whole scheme!)
There are many reasons to create your own next-day delights: you know EXACTLY what the ingredients are (let’s face it–you’d have to be a chemist to correctly pronounce the ingredients on a typical frozen dinner), your own leftovers are much more fresh than store-bought ones (how long have they been sitting on the shelf? in the warehouse? in a truck?), and you can control the portion size. Also, since you’ve already tested the meal and you know you like it, you can treat yourself to a potluck-style surprise by simply not labeling your leftover. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant and just asking for the chef’s special.
To make roasted red peppers for this dish or for any other meal that strikes your fancy:
[Optional: place a tray or a piece of aluminum foil underneath the center of the main oven rack to catch any possible drips.] Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When it’s piping hot, place the whole washed pepper directly on the rack. Roast for about 20 minutes or until the skin of the pepper begins to blacken and blister. (You may wish to turn it over halfway through the cooking time.)
Remove pepper from oven and IMMEDIATELY place in ziploc bag. Seal and let the pepper rest until it’s cool enough to handle. (This could take 30 minutes.) When you remove it from the bag–which will be foggy with condensation–the skin will be very easy to peel off. Remove stem, seeds, and all skin. At this point, you can purée the roasted pepper for dips or smooth sauces, slice it into strips to serve alongside main dishes or on sandwiches/wraps, or cover it with olive oil and save it for later. (You can refrigerate roasted red pepper for about a week.) If you’d like to flavor your pepper, add garlic and/or herbs to the oil. They can be directly added to the dish later on.
Happy roasting!
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Tags: chicken, leftovers, pasta, roasted red pepper
