Roasting Peppers

• To roast peppers, pop them in an oven or over an open flame. For the oven method, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and rub vegetable oil over the whole peppers. Set them on a baking sheet and roast them for about an hour, turning every 15 minutes or so, until the skins become browned and slightly shriveled. Or, use your gas grill, the burner on a gas stove or even a blow torch to fire roast the peppers. Hold a pepper with metal tongs and rotate it over the flame until it blackens and blisters. After roasting with either method, place the peppers in a large glass bowl and cover it with a plate or plastic wrap. Peel and discard the skin of the peppers when they cool.

In the Sauce

• One way to incorporate roasted peppers into a fettuccine dish is in the sauce. Fettuccine Alfredo is a common pasta dish, featuring a rich, creamy white sauce with Parmesan cheese and garlic. To make it a roasted pepper sauce, puree the roasted peppers in with the Alfredo sauce until it has a pinkish hue; the peppers impart sweetness to the richness of the sauce. A roasted pepper and tomato-based sauce also works with a pasta like fettuccine.

For Texture

• If you want to enjoy the texture of the roasted peppers along with the taste, cut them into bite-sized pieces or strips and skip the puree step. If you roast your own peppers, roasting them over an open flame instead in the oven results in firmer peppers. Using roasted peppers for texture in fettuccine works with most sauces, but simply coating the noodles with olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese, then adding the peppers will keep the roasted peppers as a the main attraction.

Making It Your Own

• Make roasted pepper fettuccine your own by using some culinary creativity when preparing the dish. Develop more complex flavors by roasting several types of peppers and combining them in the sauce or for texture, or both. Experiment with different roasted vegetables such as eggplant or zucchini along with the peppers, or different sauces such as pesto. For a full pepper theme, combine roasted, sauteed and raw peppers with the fettuccine noodles throughout the dish.