Jamie Oliver’s jarred pepper pasta blitzes a jar of roasted red peppers with blanched almonds, garlic, chilli flakes, cottage cheese and red wine vinegar into a smooth, vivid sauce, then tosses it through hot penne with starchy pasta water. A bright green parsley oil drizzled over the top finishes it. Four servings, 12 minutes, 591 kcal.
The recipe is from Simply Jamie (2024) and also featured on ITV’s This Morning. Oliver calls it “big sunshine flavours made so fast,” and the speed comes from two things: the sauce is entirely no-cook (everything blitzes raw), and the parsley oil is made first in the same blender, poured into a jar, then the pepper sauce goes in without washing it. One blender, two sauces, no wasted time.
The cottage cheese is the surprise ingredient. Half goes into the blender with the peppers, where it gives the sauce a creamy body without the heaviness of cream or the oiliness of too many nuts. The other half is dotted over the finished pasta in cool, fresh spoonfuls that contrast with the warm, smooth pepper sauce beneath.
Jamie Oliver Jarred Pepper Pasta
Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes7
minutes591
kcal12
minutesJamie Oliver’s 12-minute pasta from Simply Jamie: a no-cook blitzed sauce of jarred red peppers, almonds and cottage cheese, tossed through penne and finished with a bright parsley oil. Storecupboard sunshine. Serves four.
Ingredients
300g dried penne
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (30g)
1 clove of garlic
1 x 460g jar of roasted red peppers
100g blanched almonds
½-1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes
150g cottage cheese
olive oil
Directions
- Cook the pasta:Boil the penne according to packet instructions.
- Make the parsley oil:Blitz the parsley (stalks and all) in a blender with enough extra virgin olive oil to make a vibrant green oil. Pour into a clean jam jar.
- Make the pepper sauce:Without cleaning the blender, add the garlic, jarred peppers with all their juice, almonds, chilli flakes, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and half the cottage cheese. Blitz until super-smooth
- Toss:Drain the pasta, reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water. Return the pasta to the pan, pour over the pepper sauce and toss together over the heat, loosening with a splash of cooking water if needed. Season.
- Serve:Divide between plates, dot over the remaining cottage cheese and drizzle with the parsley oil. Keep leftover parsley oil in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze in an ice-cube tray.
FAQs
Why cottage cheese in a pasta sauce?
It gives the sauce creaminess and protein without the heaviness of double cream or the fat of a full ricotta. Blitzed smooth with the peppers and almonds, it disappears into the sauce completely, adding body and a subtle tang. Then the other half is dotted over the finished pasta in cool, fresh lumps, so you get two textures from one ingredient.
Oliver uses cottage cheese across Simply Jamie as a lighter, cheaper alternative to traditional Italian cheeses in pasta sauces. At 591 kcal for a generous portion of penne in a nut-and-cheese sauce, it’s moderate for a pasta dish, and the cottage cheese is part of why.
Is this like a romesco?
Very close. A traditional romesco sauce blends roasted red peppers, almonds, garlic, vinegar and olive oil, which is exactly what Oliver’s sauce base is. The cottage cheese and chilli flakes are his additions, and the parsley oil replaces the traditional drizzle of olive oil on top.
Oliver uses jarred roasted peppers the same way in his romesco cauliflower from the BBQ book, and his tomato and feta lentils from 20-Minute Meals uses the same jarred-pepper shortcut for a completely different dish. Once you have a jar in the cupboard, it becomes a one-blitz base for half a dozen meals.
Why make the parsley oil first in the same blender?
Efficiency. The parsley oil takes 10 seconds to blitz and pours clean out of the jug, leaving a green-stained blender that then gets the pepper sauce ingredients straight on top of the residual parsley. You get a hint of green herbiness in the pepper sauce without adding a separate step, and no washing up between sauces.
The leftover parsley oil keeps in the fridge for 3 days or freezes in ice-cube trays, so you make more than you need for this dish and have a ready-made finishing oil for grilled fish, soup, eggs or toast all week.
Can I use a different nut?
Blanched almonds give the smoothest, mildest result, but cashews, pine nuts or even blanched hazelnuts would work. Each shifts the flavour slightly: cashews are sweeter and creamier, pine nuts are richer and more traditionally Italian, hazelnuts are earthier.
The almonds don’t need toasting here since they’re blitzed raw with the peppers, and the jar liquid softens them enough to blitz smooth. If you’re nut-free, 50g of stale bread soaked in the pepper juice substitutes for body and thickness, following the traditional romesco approach.
What pasta shape works best?
Oliver uses penne, and any short tubular or ridged shape that traps the thick sauce works: rigatoni, fusilli, casarecce or conchiglie all suit it. The sauce is smooth and clingy enough for long pasta too (linguine or spaghetti), but short shapes hold more sauce per bite.
For a different Oliver blitzed-sauce pasta, his sardine linguine from 20-Minute Meals takes the same “blitz-while-the-pasta-boils” approach but with a fishy, caperberry base instead of peppers.
Can I make it ahead?
The pepper sauce blitzes in seconds and keeps in the fridge for 3 days, so you could make it ahead and toss it through freshly cooked pasta when ready. The parsley oil also keeps for 3 days or freezes in cubes. Between the two, you can have a 5-minute pasta dinner on standby.
Don’t dress the pasta ahead, since it absorbs the sauce and goes stodgy. Cook the pasta fresh, reheat the sauce gently if needed, and toss together just before eating for the best texture.
