Soul-chinnis with Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce

This entire recipe is under 200 calories, really simple and quick, and tastes awesome.  The zuchinnis are kind of hot and hearty and the dipping sauce has this very nice cooling effect because of the red pepper and cilantro. Serve it as an appetizer for 2-4 people or do what I did and eat the whole thing for dinner! (I threw in a side salad and an english muffin to make it a whole meal.)

Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce:

There used to be this amazing place in Brooklyn called Aunt Suzy's, and they served every table bread and butter with this amazing red pepper dipping sauce. They closed last year and I have been mourning that amazing sauce ever since.  Anyway, this sauce isn't exactly the same but it does have that nice roasted red pepper zing.

Ingredients

1 red pepper

1 small tomato

a small bunch of cilantro

splash of shiraz

Roasting a Red Pepper:

Roasting a red pepper is really easy but takes time in the oven, so start this about an hour before you plan to actually cook everything else. You can brush the pepper with oil but I usually don't (why add calories?) and I'm still quite happy with how it comes out. Basically, preheat your oven to about 450-500 degrees, stick your pepper on some foil or a baking sheet, stick it in there and walk away. Check periodically. When a spot turns black, turn it. When the whole thing is mostly black, take it out (carefully!), put it in a bowl and cover the bowl with saran wrap. Leave it for 10-20 minutes. Then you will be able to easily peel off the skin and get the seed/stem out when it is cool enough to touch.

Once your red pepper is roasted, throw it, and a tomato (chop the tomato up into big pieces), and your cilantro, and your shiraz, into a blender. Then blend until it's a good consistency. You're done.

Soul-chinnis:

Ingredients

1 large zuchinni

1 tsp whipped butter

1 tsp Jamaican soul seasoning

dash pepper, dash thyme, dash paprika

Peel & julienne your zuchinni. Put a wok* on medium-high heat and melt the butter in it, spreading it around to cover as much surface area as possible. Add your zuchinnis, then your spices, then mix around vigorously with a spatula. 

This does not take long to cook. When the skinniest zuchinnis start getting floppy and translucent, you're done.

And there you have it!

*If you don't have a wok, I'm sad for you. You can use a frying pan. Or go to ikea and buy a wok for $20.

Pasta with Red Pepper Pink Sauce

So my friend Larrin introduced me to Aunt Suzie's in Park Slope (and if you're in Brooklyn and it's date night and you feel like reasonably-priced yumtastic Italian food, you should go).  They have this awesome red pepper dipping sauce that they serve with their bread and butter and it's like, the best thing ever that happened.  I ate there recently and it got me to thinking.  "Red peppers!" was what I thought.  And I kept thinking it, for a while.  And so a sauce of my own was born.

Ingredients:

-1 or 2 fresh red bell peppers

-a 16-ozcan of Hunt's tomato sauce*

-A pint of heavy cream**

-half an onion or one small onion

-some butter and some olive oil

-some fresh garlic (half a head of regular garlic is now my standby)

-black pepper, paprika

-pasta obviously (shells or rigatoni are good for this)

*I like Hunt's because they don't add anything; it's just pureed tomato, not random spices not of my choosing.  You could use something else if you want.  But I'd be a little sad.

**Dude, organic is so much better I can't even tell you.

OKAY SO!

Start your pasta.  Just make it how you make it or follow the directions on the box.  But don't leave it in forever and let it get all mushy, that would be Sad.  

Chop up your garlic rather finely.  Also, cut up your red pepper.  I like to cut into kindaskinny strips and then cut the strips in or thirds.  It gives you a nice size that's not unmanageable.  

Put some olive oil and some butter in your saucepan and put it on a lowish heat and put in your peppers and your garlic.  After the butter has melted sprinkle on a generous amount of paprika too.  The whole point of this sauce is to be Sweet Red Peppery.  Cover it.  Let it simmer.

While you're letting it simmer, chop up your onion.  Add it whenever you're ready.  Let it simmer a while more (don't let things stick to the bottom though, be mindful and have a spatula around).  Let your red peppers get a little bit soft before continuing.

Also, check your pasta while all this is happening!  The pasta can sit and wait for the sauce if it gets done first.  Don't let it get mushy!  I won't tell you again.

Add your cream, and then your tomato sauce. Also sprinkle on some black pepper (like half a teaspoon? Sure).  Turn heat up to medium and stir well and let it simmer.  At this point it's good to have the pot partially covered; like mostly covered but with a crack for steam to escape.  Keep an eye on it, you want it to simmer but not really boil and you'll probably have to turn the heat down fairly soon to accomplish that.  Also stir from time to time. 

You want to let your sauce simmer for a while (I say ten minutes should be good) so your flavors get all nice and mixy.  Then take it off the heat and pour it over your pasta and mix and serve.  

This is nice with fresh steamed broccoli.