Canned Chipotle Peppers Add A Vibrant Kick To Creamy Tomato Pasta

Just about everyone loves a good creamy pasta — what's better than a creamy sauce to coat the tastiness of the hearty pasta and its fillings? As much as we love straightforward creamy pasta, it doesn't hurt to know a few ways to upgrade it — such as adding a vibrant and spicy kick with canned chipotle peppers.

Tasting Table's roasted tomato and chipotle cream pasta recipe uses canned chipotle peppers to integrate into the sauce with delicious results. Recipe developer Miriam Hahn describes the recipe, "I love pasta and I love Mexican food so this recipe is a fun mix of the two."

With the spice of Mexican cuisine and the comfort of pasta, this dish is a dream for anyone who loves fusion food. The sauce already has a desired texture, thanks to the cream, as well as a full flavor from the roasted tomatoes, so the chipotle peppers bring in that unexpected and unique heat to fully round out the dish into something with a dynamic flavor profile. You can find canned chipotle peppers, which are stored in adobo sauce, at most grocery stores. 

If you aren't someone who can tolerate heat very well, then you may be worried about making this recipe or using the tomato and chipotle cream sauce for another pasta recipe. Chipotle peppers are hot and smoky, but there are also undertones of sweetness, so the heat shouldn't be overpowering — much to the relief of those with lower spice tolerances.

If you're still worried about it being too hot, then you can always reduce the amount of chipotle peppers that go into the sauce — the recipe calls for two chipotle peppers from the can, so you can reduce it to just one. The recipe serves four people, so one pepper split four ways should result in just a mild heat; you'll still taste notes of the dynamic flavor, but you won't have to worry about it being overpowering. Or, to achieve a similar effect, you can take the time to remove the seeds by slicing open the peppers and scooping them out before adding the peppers to the blender — this will take away a lot of the heat, but requires a bit more effort.

On the other end of the spectrum, you may want the creamy sauce to be even spicier. In that case, you can add an extra pepper or two to kick up the heat level — as long as you're sure that you, and whoever you're serving it to, can handle the spice.