This recipe adds a great source of veggies right into the sauce without even being able to tell – aside from the radiant pink colour that is. The earthy, sweet mixture of the beets along with the nutty pistachio and creamy goat cheese is such a fun and mouth-watering concoction of flavour that I just can’t get enough of.
ingredients
- 3 large sized beets washed, peeled, and quartered
- 6 tablespoons goat cheese
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons pistachios toasted and chopped
- fresh mint leaves for garnish
- kosher salt (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 lb rigatoni
directions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Place beets in foil on a cookie sheet or in a baking dish, toss with a tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add in a tsp of olive oil. This helps the pasta to not stick during cooking. Drain the pasta once cooked and save some of the pasta water for later.
- Combine cooked beets, 4 tbsp goat cheese, clove of garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp of pistachios, 1 tbsp pasta water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Add the blended sauce in with the pasta in a large serving dish. Add some of the reserved pasta water if needed to thin out the sauce.
- Plate and top with your choice of more goat cheese, chopped toasted pistachios, pepper, and/or fresh mint.
notes
- Feel free to use any pasta, rigatoni is my favourite but you could use penne, spaghetti, bowtie, or any other whole grain pasta!
- If you’re not as big a fan of pistachios or not strong nut flavour, you could lower to 1 tbsp or change to walnuts for a different but delicious flavour profile.
