This Italian pasta con melanzane, tastes like summer. Al dente pasta served with fried eggplant, fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil is a beautiful addition to your recipe collection.
1medium sized eggplantsliced into 5 mm (0.2 inches) slices
4large ripe tomatoes
2garlic cloves, minced
1bunchfresh basil
olive oil for shallow frying
2 tablespoonsred wine vinegar
300gramspasta of your choice
80gramsricotta salata or Greek feta cheese
Instructions
Peel the tomatoes: prick the toamto skin with a sharp knife and place them in bowl with boiling water. Take the tomatoes out in a couple of minutes and let them cool down. Once cool enough to handle, slip off the skin. It will come off very easily.
Dice the peeled tomatoes and put them in a large bowl.
Peel and mince the garlic and add the garlic paste to the diced tomatoes along with basil leaves, red wine vinegar and a good pinch of sea salt. Mix everything together and set the sauce aside.
Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the eggplant/aubergine slices on both sides until they are nice ad golden and the eggplant is cooked through. Take the slices out, out on a plate and set aside.
Bring a large pan of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to cooking instructions until pasta is al dente.
While pasta is cooking put the tomato mixture into a frying pan and heat gently until hot, but not cooked.
Drain the pasta and add it to the tomato mixture, mix to combine.
Gently fold in the fried eggplant slices along with some fresh basil leaves.
Serve the pasta in warm bowls with some extra feta cheese and fresh basil leaves on top.
Enjoy!
Video
Notes
You don't need to salt the eggplant before frying it.Use pecorino, parmesan or mozzarella cheese instead of salted ricotta and Greek feta.Add some chili flakes to the tomato mixture if you would like to add some spice to the dish.