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Soft Pasta with Roasted Capsicum Sauce and Fine Turkey

Capsicums roasted until the skins lift away, blended with milk into a sweet orange sauce, folded through turkey mince broken to crumbs and pasta cooked past al dente.

Soft Pasta with Roasted Capsicum Sauce and Fine Turkey. Capsicums roasted until the skins lift away, blended with milk into a sweet orange sauce, folded through turkey mince broken to crumbs and pasta cooked past al dente.
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Prep 20 minCook 45 minServes 4

Ingredients

Why metric?

Metric avoids regional spoon ambiguity. US uses 5 mL tsp, 15 mL tbsp and 240 mL cup. Small masses stay in grams unless a verified recipe conversion exists. More on measurements

  • 2 large red capsicums (400 g)
  • 500 g turkey mince
  • 300 g small pasta shapes (dry)
  • 100 g onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed (10 g)
  • 25 g olive oil
  • 150 ml reduced-fat milk (155 g)
  • 30 g skim milk powder
  • 35 g parmesan, finely grated
  • 150 ml reduced-salt stock (150 g)
  • 20 g unsalted butter
  • 1 g dried oregano
  • 0.5 g iodised table salt
  • black pepper, to taste

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 220C fan. Halve the capsicums, pull out the seeds and stems and lay them cut side down on a tray. Roast 25-30 minutes, until the skins have blistered and blackened in patches.
  2. Tip them into a bowl, cover it and leave 10 minutes. The trapped steam lifts the skins away; they should then peel off in sheets. Do not skip this. Capsicum skin is thin, tough and completely indestructible in a sauce.
  3. Blend the peeled flesh with the milk and the milk powder until smooth.
  4. Warm the oil in a wide pan and soften the onion and garlic 10 minutes over low heat. Add the turkey mince and break it apart constantly with the back of a spoon for 8 minutes, until it is in fine crumbs with no pink left.
  5. Pour in the capsicum sauce, the stock, the oregano and the salt, and simmer 15 minutes until it has thickened and the mince is tender enough to crush against the side of the pan.
  6. Cook the pasta 3-4 minutes longer than the packet says, so there is no bite left at the centre at all. Drain, fold it into the sauce with the butter, and serve with the Parmesan and pepper over the top.

Safety and storage

Cook to
74°C / 165°F in the centre (poultry, including minced poultry)
Keeps
2 days refrigerated below 5°C
Reheat to
steaming hot, at least 60°C

The table gives poultry cuts as 74°C. Minced poultry is taken to the same temperature rather than the 71°C mince figure, because mincing spreads surface bacteria through the whole mass. Colour and clear juices are not a reliable test. Check the thickest part with a thermometer.

Cooked rice and pasta keep two days rather than three, so this dish takes the shorter time. Cool and cover within two hours, split large amounts into shallow containers, and reheat until steaming hot, at least 60°C.

Where these temperatures come from