This post is sponsored by Breakstone’s. Find their creamy cottage cheese and smooth sour cream at a retailer near you.
This High Protein Roasted Red Pepper Pasta is super easy, with a high protein red pepper sauce made right in a blender. Cottage cheese takes the place of heavy cream in a better-for-you sauce that’s still creamy and decadent tasting.
This pasta can be spicy if you want it to be, or not spicy at all – roasted red peppers aren’t spicy out of the jar and the taste is sweet, smoky, and slightly charred. The roasting process caramelizes the natural sugars in the pepper, enhancing its sweetness, while the intense heat imparts a characteristic smoky flavor. They’re also super tender, which makes them a perfect base for this sauce!
Cottage Cheese FTW
Cottage cheese may be having a multi-year moment right now, but I’ve loved it for many more years as an easy and versatile way to hit my protein goals. Breakstone’s is the perfect choice for all your cottage cheese creations – it’s made with high quality dairy and whips up into an ultra creamy consistency. As for the protein content, their 4% milk fat version boasts 12 grams of protein per 1/2 cup serving.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this High Protein Roasted Red Pepper Pasta at home:
- Pasta – Mezze rigatoni is a shorter version of regular rigatoni and is perfect for holding sauce and ground meat. Don’t forget to reserve some pasta water in case you need to loosen up the sauce!
- Ground chicken – I went for a mix of ground chicken and sausage to keep plenty of flavor and protein in this dish. You could skip one or even both if you want to make this vegetarian.
- Mild Italian sausage – If you love spice, you could go for hot sausage here instead. I like the kind that isn’t in link form so I don’t have to mess with removing the casings.
- Breakstone’s Cottage Cheese – I’ve tried this with both 2% and 4% cottage cheese and recommend 4% for the little bit of extra creaminess. If all you have on hand is fat free or 2%, you could even fortify it with a few tablespoons of heavy cream.
- Roasted red peppers – I recommend the jarred ones that you can find in the pickle section of the store. You could roast your own, but why mess with perfection?
- Fresh basil – Don’t skip it! You really need the basil for some freshness that makes the sauce pop. I’ve tried it with onion instead, but basil is the winner.
- Dry white wine – I like the acidity that wine brings to the party, but you can sub it out with chicken or vegetable stock if needed. You may need a little squeeze of fresh lemon to finish the sauce if you skip the wine.
- Parmesan cheese – Adds salt and meltiness to help bring the sauce together before serving.
If you want to add more veggies (and protein) to this pasta, stir in a few big handfuls of baby spinach along with the parmesan cheese after you’ve removed the pasta from the heat.
Meal Prep Tips
This pasta holds up really well for 4-5 days in air tight meal prep containers. The real trick with this one is when it comes to reheating – keep some extra pasta water or stock (chicken or veggie) on hand to add a couple tablespoons to the pasta when you reheat it. The extra liquid will help loosen up the sauce and make up for some of the moisture that will absorb in the pasta after it sits for a while.
Shop for This Recipe
I linked a 5 qt enameled cast iron braiser below, but I used a 3.5 quart “buffet casserole” in the photos and video – the extra space in the 5 quart version gives you more room to stir without spilling (but doesn’t photograph as well ;)). A dutch oven would also work – I love enameled cast iron for this recipe as opposed to something non-stick to help develop frond aka flavor in the bottom of the pot.
High Protein Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry, short cut pasta like mezze rigatoni
- 1 lb lean ground chicken
- 1 lb mild Italian pork sausage, casings removed
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, (32 grams)
- 1/2 cup dry white wine, (4 fl oz)
- 1 tsp olive oil
- fresh chopped basil for serving
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups Breakstone's 4% Cottage Cheese, (351 grams)
- 12.9 oz jar of roasted red peppers, drained, (360 grams)
- 6-8 fresh basil leaves
- 3/4 tsp garlic and herb mixed seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Add all sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.
- Cook pasta to about 1 minute shy of al dente in salted boiling water (follow package directions).
- While the pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Once shimmery, add ground chicken and sausage. Break the chicken and sausage apart into small chunks as they cook, until cooked through.
- Make a space in the middle of the skillet and add white wine to deglaze and cook off the alcohol. Add sauce to the skillet, stir, and lower heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer while pasta finishes cooking.
- Once pasta is cooked, reserve about a cup of the pasta water and set aside. Drain the pasta, then immediately add to the skillet with the sauce. Turn the heat off and stir in the parmesan cheese until melted. Add reserved pasta water as desired to increase the sauce volume and help it thicken.
- Serve with additional parmesan cheese and fresh chopped basil, if desired.
Tips & Tricks
Nutrition Information
