Creamy Grilled Pepper, Onion, and Garlic Pasta

On August 28, 2026August 28, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grilledLeave a comment

Every summer, I can jars of tomato-based pasta sauces, freeze pestos, and preserve other vegetables so that they can quickly be tossed with pasta for a weeknight meal. But when the garden is producing heavily, I prefer to make easy pasta sauces from the fresh harvest, including the sauce I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

Grilling the vegetables makes this particular sauce so speedy yet taste like it spent hours developing its deep flavor. Sweet peppers, along with alliums like onions and garlic, caramelize and pick up smoky notes from the open flame.

The grilling process itself might seem like extra work, particularly if you need to set up and clean a gas grill or wait for charcoal to fully light before you start. I typically make this meal when I already have a mound of its vegetables to grill for freezing or canning or when we’re out on our sailboat and it’s as easy to pop a full gas canister onto a portable grill as the portable burner. When I’m grilling bowlfuls of vegetables but already have a dinner plan, I set aside ones for this pasta, or for the savory pancakes I’ll share next week, to make an ultrafast dinner a night or two later.
Learn to make Creamy Grilled Pepper, Onion, and Garlic Pasta

Romesco-Inspired Grilled Pepper and Almond Sauce

On August 8, 2025August 7, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grilledLeave a comment

Tomato sauce comes in so many variations that it’s easy to overlook equally delicious sauces that feature another nightshade: sweet peppers. I offer one version of a sweet pepper sauce this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I also explain why my recipe is merely inspired by romesco, which in Catalonia traditionally consists of mainly tomatoes and garlic underscored by mild ñora peppers but has been misrepresented as a roasted red pepper sauce by many American recipes.

Whatever you call them, sweet pepper sauces deserve as much attention as tomato ones—and are just as versatile. I’ve written about different ways to roast peppers for Taste of Home, but I typically make sauces with Grilled Sweet Peppers. The recipe in this week’s column includes nuts like romesco, and I typically make it in small batches to eat fresh. My Grilled Sweet Pepper Sauce recipe lacks nuts and garlic and freezes beautifully for quick meals all year.
Learn to make Romesco-Inspired Grilled Pepper and Almond Sauce

Roasting Peppers

On April 11, 2023May 10, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn grilledLeave a comment

In one of my recent pieces for Taste of Home, I had a chance to share techniques for one of my favorite vegetable upgrades: roasting. I mainly roast homegrown peppers, so it’s an easy seasonal choice to char them on the grill. But if you’re buying peppers out of season or keeping an eye on a simmering pot in the kitchen, indoor techniques may make more sense. So I share not one but four ways to roast peppers of all colors, sizes, and heat levels.

Once glance at the price on a jar of roasted peppers in the store makes clear a key advantage to roasting your own. Other reasons include the ability to get them just the right softness to use in chunks in fresh dishes—jarred roasted peppers tend to be soft and slippery. I don’t just roast the standard red bell peppers, either: green bells, Gypsy peppers, Poblanos, and chilies all carry a smoky note when their charred.
Learn more about Roasting Peppers

One Prep, Two Meals: Grilled Peppers

On August 20, 2020August 20, 2020 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Grilling, Ingredient, Using1 Comment

Grilled peppers upgrade many quick, easy meals. Get one prep, two meal recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
If you search through the blog’s recipe index, it quickly becomes obvious that grilling and smoking are my favorite ways to prepare peppers. Sure, raw peppers add a crisp, sweet flavor to everything from salads to summer rolls. But quickly cut free their cores and place them on a hot grill, and you have an immediate upgrade to salsas, sauces, kebabs, black bean burgers, and even canning projects. Set them on a grill over low heat and smoking woodchips, and you can smoke chilies until they are dry enough to store for winter use or just enough to puree them into my favorite chili paste.

For many of these uses, I’m grilling bumper crops of peppers until I run out of coals. But you can enjoy the same intense flavor with just a pepper or two for a weeknight meal. Better yet, make room for just a little extra veg and you can prep two meals at once. I lean toward pasta on the grilling night: I multitask by cooking the pasta while I’m prepping or monitoring the grill, and then I make a creamy sauce base while I’m waiting for the peppers to cool enough to peel. The next night, all I need to do is chop up the grilled veg before stirring it into batter for savory pancakes.
Learn to make Creamy Grilled Bell Pepper Pasta and Grilled Pepper Pancakes with Goat Cheese

Grilled Peppers

On July 24, 2018December 1, 2019 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Grilling, Ingredient3 Comments

You could spend a small fortune buying jars of oily, roasted red peppers. Or you could grill your own. Get roasted red pepper recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Every year, we stuff at least 40 pepper plants into a hoop house, including bell peppers, Gypsy peppers, Poblanos, and several types of chilies. We go big because peppers can go in and on almost anything: salsas, salads, dips, sauces, breakfast eggs, lunch sandwiches, dinner pastas—the list is endless.

The challenge is in waiting for the peppers to ripen to bright yellows, oranges, reds, and purples and then capturing their peak flavor. My favorite variations use the grill to add a little char for fresh eating, such as for Corn, Bean, and Pepper Salsa and Shish Kebabs with Garlic–Soy Marinade, or a lot of smokiness before long-term storage, such as for Smoked Chilies and Home-Smoked Chili Paste. My latest trick falls somewhere in the middle: roasting peppers on the grill and then freezing them in a dice to throw in winter dishes or as a puree to use as a spread or sauce.
Learn to grill peppers and make Red Bell Pepper Puree