Sun-dried tomato & roast pepper spaghetti

With a pine nut, feta & lemon zest topping

This is one of the easiest and tastiest pastas you can make in my opinion, and most of the ingredients are store cupboard heroes.

Sun-dried tomatoes and jarred peppers come to the rescue again as flavour heroes. They are made into a rich pasta sauce that requires no cooking - it’s just a case of blending them, or you could finely chop/use a pestle and mortar if you don’t have a food processor. It makes use of the lovely flavoured oil from the tomatoes too, which is often wasted.

Top the saucy pasta with a crunchy, creamy, zesty mix of toasted pine nuts, feta and fresh lemon zest. Pasta perfection in my opinion.

You’ll need (per portion):

• 75-100g spaghetti, depending on appetite

• 1-2 jarred red peppers (weight of around 150g)

• 4-5 sun-dried tomatoes (weight of 40-50g)

• 2 tbsp sundried tomatoes oil

• 15g pine nuts

• zest of half a lemon

• 40g feta cheese, cut into small cubes

Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions.

Meanwhile, add the peppers and sun-dried tomatoes to a blender along with 2 tbsp of oil from the tomato jar. Blend until smooth.

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat (without oil). Toast the pine nuts for a few minutes until they start to change colour and smell fragrant. Add the lemon zest and cook for a further minute or so.

Add the feta to a small bowl and then add the pine nuts. Add a touch of the tomato oil (or extra virgin olive oil) and mix.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and add the pepper and tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper and warm through for just a minute or so.

Serve the pasta and top with the feta and pine nut mix. Dig in.