Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

This is a warm pasta salad with roasted  peppers, cilantro and ginger – another of my “made-up” dishes.  I had not made it for a while when I saw Jamie’s recipe for roasted red pepper and walnut spread. This prompted me to make it again.

Ingredients:

• Sweet bell peppers. I generally use robot peppers as that gives great colour variation, but go lightly on the green peppers because they have much stronger flavour.  This time I used red peppers with yellow (small and end-of-season) ones.
• Fresh ginger, grated
• Fresh cilantro (coriander and, in South Africa, also known as Dhanya).  We still have some in the garden which is flowering – so I used the feathery leaves, green seeds and flowers for garnish
• Clove of garlic (I add it to the water in which the pasta cooks and after I’ve drained the pasta, I squeeze out the creamy flesh, mash it and add it to the cooked pasta).
• Cheese – this time I used lovely Labneh made by a McGregor resident, but cheddar and/or another mild cheese works equally well)
• Pasta (commercial or home made)

Here’s what I do:  Roast the peppers, cool and and then peel them, removing seeds and any pith.  The peppers release juice – I reserve that – the flavour is wonderful.  Slice or tear the peppers into slivers.  Once the pasta is cooked and drained, and a little olive oil tossed in, the rest of the ingredients, except for the cheese and some of the fresh dhanya, are equally unceremoniously tossed in and about.  Plate in a pasta bowl and garnish with the cheese and reserved cilantro.  Serve immediately (on hot plates if the weather is cold;  in summer I don’t bother).