Pepperoni Pasta

So... apparently, while I was in the UK, my dear dear family had gone eating at all sorts of places. Of course, they stuck by old favorites such as Excapades, but apparently, a new favorite was Capers at Kiulap.

Now, I had gone to Capers (like, once) and I didn't really like the food. Maybe I ordered the "wrong" dish, or maybe I just don't like Italian food all that much, who knows. But in any case, my point is that apparently, one of my sisters really really likes pasta. I only found this out (bad Ihsan!) when she was rhapsodising about the food in Capers - and when I showed her one of my cookbooks which is all about pasta, haha. Anyway, when I offered to make a pasta dish for lunch one day, she was like, Yes! So here we go!

What you need:
(serves 4)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
800g canned chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste - horribly expensive in Brunei, I just used Tomato Maggi, haha. Nyaman jua.
1 teaspoon paprika - couldn't be bothered to buy this, so omitted
225g pepperoni sausage, sliced
150g minced beef
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to garnish - I subbed with basil <3
450g dried penne Salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:

1. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until softened.
2. Add the red pepper, tomatoes and their can juices, sun-dried tomato paste and paprika and bring to the boil.
3. Add the peperoni, minced beef and fresh herbs and season to taste with salt and plenty of black pepper. Stir well, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add water as necassary, or if you require a more liquidy sauce.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large, heavy-based saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta, return to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
5. Add the remaining olive oil and toss. Add the sauce and toss again. Garnish with herbs and serve immediately.

Mmmmmmmmmm! I took plenty of samples of this while it was simmering, and yum! The sauce was all lovely and thick and rich and all beefy, hehe. Don't be shy with the pepper. I would have added the paprika, but I could only find smoked paprika and didn't really want a smoky taste in this. Plus, I don't like the taste of normal paprika all that much anyway, so I decided to omit it.

In the simmering, the chopped tomatoes melted to make a rich flavoursome sauce. So delicious! I suppose it would be possible to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, but canned makes it so much easier. Also, it would also be possible to use pasta sauce instead as well, but I think chopped tomatoes are... well, better, haha. They give the sauce a nice texture, and taste nicer as well, I think. So go with the chopped tomato cans I say!

As for my sister, she ate a lot lot lot. So its safe to say she liked it a lot, I think. Babah seemed to like the pepperoni slices. In fact, everyone seemed to like the pepperoni slices. I've never used pepperoni before and only had them on pizza, but I must say, I like it. I like the slight spiciness. :D Very yum. The original recipe didn't have minced beef in it, but I added it to make the sauce a bit more substantial. But you can omit it, if you like.

So anyway... if you're tired of your usual pasta, try out this one. Its definitely a nice change, I should think. :D

Quote of the day: As long as there's pasta and Chinese food in the world, I'm okay.