Pesto pasta with roasted red pepper and sun dried tomatoes

This was a recipe I created this evening, driven mainly by the fact that we had a bunch of the ingredients in our refrigerator that needed to be used.  This time of the year, green beans are so inexpensive, yet are extremely versatile and quite tasty.  They work great in this recipe, although you could add really anything.  We also had a red pepper that needed to be used, and making a roasted red pepper is so dang easy, I don't know why it's been so long since I've made one.

My husband raved that this recipe was great.  I agree...I ate wayyy to much.

Ingredients:

1 lb pasta, I used mostaccioli 

1 medium onion halved, and the sliced thinly

4 cloves of garlic, smashed and roughly chopped

approx 2c green beans, trimmed and sliced into 1 inch pieces

3 oz sundried tomatoes, sliced

1 red pepper, roasted and chopped (see below)

5 oz pesto

olive oil, to taste

red pepper flakes to taste (I added 1/2 tsp or so)

Directions:

Roasted red pepper:

Oil the outside of a red pepper.  Place it under the broiler, turning it occasionally to char all sides.  After fully charred, remove it from the oven, and place it into a brown paper bag.  Close the bag, and leave for 10 minutes to allow the pepper to steam, and the skin to loosen.  Remove black char with a paper towel, and water, if necessary.  Remove seeds, and chop coarsely.

Pasta:

Boil pasta according to directions in salted water.  When approximately 3 minutes remain in the noodle cooking time, throw in green beans and sundried tomatoes.  Drain in colander, and leave until later.

In the same pot you cooked the noodles in, add olive oil.  Fry onions until softened.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook briefly (1-2 minutes) to cook slightly but not burn.

When onions and garlic are ready, return pasta to the pot.  Stir in pesto and olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Top with shredded cheese, if desired.