Spelt Rigatone, Smoky Mexican Pepper Sauce, Courgette, Pancetta and Bread Crumbs by Tracey Cotterall

Ingredients

Smoky pepper sauce:

1 x large red capsicum, roasted
1 x large red chilli, roasted
¼ tsp smoked paprika,
1 tsp Spanish mild paprika
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp caster sugar
pinch black pepper
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Pasta & accompaniments:

300gm Angelo’s Spelt Rigatone
350gm baby courgette
175gm flat pancetta block
50gm fresh coarse breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley

olive oil
salt flakes
cracked black pepper

Method

Pre-heat fan oven to 200ºC with top and bottom element on if possible.

To make pepper sauce, rub whole capsicum and chilli in olive oil and place on foil-lined baking tray. Roast chilli for 15 minutes and remove to covered bowl. Continue to roast capsicum for a further 15 minutes, until blackened and blistering, turning a couple of times. Remove to bowl containing chilli and cover to steam and cool.

When cool enough to handle, remove stalks, seeds and skin. It is not imperative to remove skin from chilli and if you like heat, you may want to leave chilli seeds in the sauce. Retain capsicum juice to include in the sauce.

Place capsicum, chilli flesh and any juice in large jug.

Add remaining ingredients and blend to create a smooth, thick sauce. Adjust seasoning to taste. Set aside until serving.

Cook Angelo’s Spelt Rigatone Pasta in plenty of boiling salted water for about 15 minutes, until just tender. Drain.

Prepare accompaniments. Cut courgette into 3mm slices.

Pre-heat large frying pan to medium high and fry courgette with a tablespoon olive oil. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt and 2 pinches pepper and cook in a couple of batches for about 3 minutes, until tinged golden brown. Stir occasionally (as opposed to often) as this will give the vegetable time to colour but not overcook. Place in large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, remove skin from pancetta and discard. Cut pancetta into 1cm chunks. Re-heat large frying pan over medium high heat and fry pancetta for about 5 minutes, until fat has rendered out and pancetta is crisp. Drain pancetta on absorbent paper then add to courgette in mixing bowl. Reserve pancetta fat to cook crumbs.

Re-heat frying pan with about 2 tablespoons pancetta fat. Add crumbs and fry, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes, until golden and crisp.

Toss drained pasta, courgette, pancetta and half the chopped parsley with 125ml to 150ml smoky pepper sauce.

Place into serving bowl and scatter with crisp crumbs and remaining parsley. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The smoky pepper sauce is great with steaks or sausages on the BBQ. In our South American Street Scene class, we use it with Chimmichuri sauce on a chorizo hot dog.

Tracey is one of our Feature Foodies. Read about her food story here.

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