Spaghetti with Grilled Bell Pepper Sauce & Goat Cheese
Two bell peppers, quartered and roasted until blistered and soft. They come out of the oven soft, sweet, and ready to disappear into the sauce.
Meanwhile, garlic and onion hit olive oil in a warm pan. Tomato paste goes in next, deepening for a minute before diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and oregano join. Seven minutes of sautéing builds the base. Then everything goes into a tall container with cream cheese, and the immersion blender turns it all smooth.
That blending step is doing more than creating texture. Research found that pureed vegetable-cheese-fat meals empty from the stomach 19% slower than the exact same ingredients eaten as separate pieces, keeping people measurably fuller for an hour longer. The cream cheese and olive oil in the blend are key: they create the fat-protein matrix that slows everything down.
The sauce coats whole wheat spaghetti, and crumbled goat cheese finishes it with a sharp tang that balances the roasted sweetness perfectly. 785 kcal, 24g protein, 11g fiber. Twenty minutes, start to plate.
Ingredients
- bell peppers 2
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- spaghetti, whole wheat 3 ounces
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- tomato paste 1 tablespoon
- diced tomatoes 4 ounces
- balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon
- oregano, dried 1 teaspoon
- cream cheese, reduced fat 3 tablespoons
- goat cheese 1 ounce
Method
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Preheat the oven to 410°F (210°C).
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Halve the bell peppers lengthwise, remove the seeds and cut the peppers into quarters. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread the pepper pieces over it, drizzle with half of the oil and roast the peppers in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
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Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.
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Finely chop the onion and garlic clove.
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Heat the remaining oil in a pan. Sauté the onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for an additional minute. Then, add the diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and oregano and heat for 4 minutes.
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Remove the peppers from the oven, place them in a tall container along with the tomato sauce and cream cheese and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Pour the sauce back into the pan, stir in the drained spaghetti and heat everything together for another minute. Add a dash more water if the sauce becomes too thick.
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Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the pasta on a (deep) plate and crumble the goat cheese over the top.
Roast the peppers until the skin blisters and starts to peel. The darker the edges get, the sweeter your sauce will taste. If the sauce thickens too much after blending, stir in a splash of pasta water instead of plain water. The starch helps the sauce grip the spaghetti.
Step 5 does something most cooks never think about. Sautéing garlic and onion with tomato products in olive oil makes the lycopene in tomatoes up to 8 times easier to absorb. The compounds in garlic and onion catalyze this conversion during heating in oil. Seven minutes of sautéing in this recipe runs that reaction across both the tomato paste and the diced tomatoes.
Santangelo et al. — European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1998 · DOIBehind this recipe
Why blend the sauce instead of leaving it chunky?
Mostly texture preference, but there is a bonus. Research found that pureed vegetable-cheese-fat meals empty from the stomach 19% slower than the same ingredients eaten as separate pieces (Santangelo et al., 1998). The cream cheese and olive oil in the blend create a fat-protein matrix that increases the sauce's viscosity, which slows gastric emptying. A chunky sauce tastes great too, but you would lose that satiety effect.
Can I use regular cream cheese instead of reduced-fat?
Yes. The sauce will be slightly richer and the fat content goes up by a few grams. The reduced-fat version keeps the meal at 40g total fat while still giving the sauce its creamy body. Either version works for the blending step.
Why whole wheat spaghetti?
Fiber. Whole wheat spaghetti carries most of this meal's 11g of fiber. A meta-analysis of 62 pooled trials found that fiber supplementation produces a real, reproducible body-weight reduction without deliberate calorie restriction. Eleven grams in one dinner is a solid contribution.
Read the full evidence reviewWhat if I don't like goat cheese?
Swap it for feta or shaved Parmesan. The goat cheese adds a tangy contrast to the sweet roasted pepper sauce, so pick something with a similar sharpness. The macros will shift slightly depending on what you choose.
