Sweet And Spicy Rose Rigate

My household is overall, a pretty big fan of food. Mind you - we don't always agree on favourites (I'm a herbivore and my husband, although cutting back, loves his meat) there's a few favourites all three of us share. The biggest one right now is sweet potato. 

I was a definite late comer on the sweet potato bandwagon but after some time, my guys - who both absolutely die for it, have me changing my ways - of thinking and ways of using it.

Coming from backgrounds where we both grew up on spicy food, there's few things a little kick can't cure. Obviously Rheo isn't eating spicy food (although I also ate high spice food throughout my entire pregnancy, so I predict the day will come where he too is fond of it) we just set foods aside when it comes time to incorporate any seasonings/spices.

In combining of these two favourites came the inspiration and make behind the dish of high demand in our kitchen.

It's the love child of sweet and spicy, atop a sharp pasta full of flavour and warmth. We make everything except the noodles from scratch, but, we have a new baby at home - so I assure you it's easy peasy and not overly hand consuming. I did however shorten the recipe by excluding the making of the sauces. (See below).

Good To Know:

Prep Time - 10 minutes 

Cook Time - 15 minutes

Total Time - 25 minutes

Serves - (varies).

Ingredients:

(Sauce)

Tomato Sauce
Alfredo Sauce

Extra virgin olive oil

Pepper 

Chilli flakes

Spinach 

Garlic

(Pasta)

Any type of penne would suffice - but we usually opt for a Mezze Minache Rigate or large Rigatoni. The shape is ideal for getting a lot of sauce in one bite and the bigger the better.

(Add-Ins)

Sweet potato

Spinach
Broccoli

Chilli flakes

Chia seeds

Sesame seeds

Cheese

Directions:

1. Combine tomato based pasta sauce (we make ours ourselves**) alfredo sauce and white wine in a small sauce pan. Cook over medium-low heat while cooking pasta and vegetables. When coming to a bubble add in spinach, a dash of pepper, chilli flakes (to spice tolerance).

2. Chop skinned, sweet potato and broccoli into large chunks. Cook in salted boiling water, being sure not to over cook (or else both become mushy and break down when being mixed into pasta).

3. Cook large penne noodles in boiling, salted water according to package directions. I ever so slightly under cook mine or do so following directions for "al dente."

4. When properly cooked, rinse pasta and scoop into bowl and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and a light seasoning of sea salts.

5. Top with a generous scoop of your now "rose sauce," and layer with freshly scooped out the pot potatoes and broccoli. Finish with a sprinkle (I go pretty hard on my so called sprinkle) of shredded old cheddar, *chia/hemp/and sesame seeds.

Simple as can be but so delicious. The zest of the sauce with the sweet light flavour of the vegetables are the perfect match for a thick pasta and zinging hint of cheddar. My husband begs for this by the mounds on game day though, so you know it's good - and more than anything, it's obviously filling.

* The seeds are added merely as additional protein. If you're a non vegetarian/vegan, these flavours would nicely compliment a chicken addition, keeping or discarding the use of seeds.

** I will do a post soon on our "sugo" (homemade pasta sauce) making routine, recipe, etc.

Happy cooking and enjoy!
XO, Olivia Murray.