Spicy Pasta with Sweet Potatoes

Spicy Pasta with Sweet Potatoes (slightly adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, Servings: 4, Total Time: 30 minutes)

Ingredients

·         1 12 oz. sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes (2 cups)

·         1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         ½ tsp. chili powder

·         ½ tsp. cinnamon

·         ½ tsp. sugar

·         8 oz. dried rigatoni

·         1/3 cup peanut butter

·         3 oz. cream cheese, cut up

·         2 tsp. Asian chili sauce (such as Sriracha sauce)

·         1 Tbsp. soy sauce

·         6 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2.      Spray a rimmed baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Place sweet potato cubes in a bowl. Toss with the 1 tablespoon olive oil, the chili powder, cinnamon, and sugar. Spread in prepared pan; bake for 20 minutes or until tender.

3.      Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup hot pasta water.

4.      In a saucepan combine peanut butter, cream cheese, chili sauce, and soy sauce; whisk in ¾ cup of the hot pasta water. Stir over medium heat until heated through. If the mixture is too thick, stir in additional water. Stir in most of the green onions.

5.      Serve sauce over pasta with sweet potatoes and remaining green onion slices.

First, I’ll start by saying that I liked this dish.  It had a good sweet/heat combination – I have never tried an Asian dish with peanut butter in it, but I like it!  But, be forewarned, if you do not like peanut butter, you will not like this.  It is very heavy on the peanut butter taste, with a little spicy kick at the end.

I like the addition of the sweet potatoes, but I only had one 8 oz. potato, which was not enough to make a whole lot of difference.  In the future, I will definitely want more than 12 oz. of potatoes.  They are soft and chewy in the dish, and the chili powder, cinnamon, and sugar work together nicely.  And that’s coming from somebody who doesn’t really care for cinnamon!

I used egg noodles because we did not have rigatoni, but they held the sauce and are slightly lower in calories in than other pastas.  I also used creamy peanut butter (neither my husband nor I like crunchy) and 1/3 less fat cream cheese so as to try to reduce the calories.  This dish is high in calories, but we made it work for six servings instead of four.  We also didn’t have Sriracha sauce (though we both swear we bought it), so I used 1 tsp. Tabasco and 2 tsp. of a sweet and spicy Asian sauce.  They definitely added the kick that I was looking for and some additional sweetness.  I only added three green onions because my husband is not a big fan of them, too bad, because they added a nice crunch to the overall creamy texture of the dish.  Finally, I added 1 cup pasta water, but still found the sauce was too thick.  Next time will add 1 ¼ or 1 ½ cups.

I recommend this dish to anyone looking to try peanut butter in a meal or who likes a sweet/heat combo.  Enjoy!