How to Make Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Mushrooms

I saw a recipe like this on the Food Nanny, and thought I'd try my own version,  I also consulted my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com .  We served the sauce over pasta.  Brian, who is a food snob, absolutely adored it, and the kids loved it, too except for Katrina who refused to try it.   Here are step by step photos and directions.  Happy roasting!

Ingredients
2 peppers  (I used orange, but I figure red, yellow, or even green will do although green will be more strong and less sweet.  I'm all about using what you have and what you can afford.)
Olive Oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tsp dried basil or 1/4 c. fresh
1 c. milk
1c. cream
1/2 lb mushrooms washed and quartered
1 tbsp bullion (chicken, beef, or veggie)



 For this sauce, start by roasting your peppers.   This part seems hard, but was amazingly easy!  I just did it this morning as I was working in the kitchen.  The roasting process took only 15 minutes.  Here's what I did.

1.  First, I turned the oven to BROIL. Then, I rubbed the peppers with olive oil.  Next, I put them on a foil lined baking sheet.   Then I took a lousy picture with my messy stove in the background so that you, my dear reader, could visualize the process.

2.  I Broiled the peppers till they were somewhat black on top.  Without preheating the broiler, this only took 5 minutes for the first side.

Actually, these are a bit too lightly browned.  You may want to get them a bit darker.  See pict below.

3.Next I took a pair of tongs and turned the pepper one turn.  Then I broiled again.  This time it only took 3 minutes, so be warned.  Keep an eye on your peppers and don't burn them completely black!  I just set the timer so that I don't have to think about it while I am busy doing other very important things.

Finished product.  Beautiful!  (the pepper, not the picture)

4.  Here, I stuck the peppers in lunch bags so that they can sweat awhile.  This makes them easy for peeling.

 

5.  The peppers take very little time to cool (5-10 min).  When they were cool, I peeled them with my fingers, removed the seeds, and cut off any inner membranes.  The whole process took about 5 minutes.

Peeled and De-seeded!

That's it for now.  I'll do the rest closer to dinner time.  

****

Okay, it's time to kick into high gear for dinner.  I put the water on the stove to boil the pasta and went to work on the sauce.

6.  I diced the roasted peppers and saute'd them in olive oil with some minced garlic and basil.  Fresh basil would have been divine, but I didn't have any, so I used about 1-1/2 tsp dried.  Saute' for about 10 min on med heat.  

7.  Next, I put the saute'd mixture into a blender, added a cup of milk and a cup and cream and blended till smooth.

8.  After that, I washed and cut the mushrooms up, added the bullion, and saute'd it all in olive oil. 

9.  Next, I poured the blended pepper mixture into the mushrooms, added about a half cup of parmesan, 

and let it cook down till the sauce was thick and yummy.

Arrgghhh!!  I forgot to take a picture of the sauce over pasta!  That's the second time I've forgotton to take a picture of the finished product for this blog!  Sorry!  Imagine it drizzled over pasta.  Enjoy!