Linguine con pomodoro e melanzana, poco picante!

Linguine with tomato and eggplant, a little spicy!

(serves 2)

In line with the 'keeping it simple' mentality, this dish tastes pretty gourmet even if it's just tomato and eggplant! My first encounter with this dish was of course, in Rome, in a small restaurant down some dark alleyway that my sister and I hunted out from the Lonely Planet guide. From memory, they had less than 10 dishes on the menu so we didn't have a lot of choice. But the eggplant was juicy and tender, with a slight crisp. The tomato base was fresh, not too sour and the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente. Definitely no regrets.

Prep time: 10 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

3 tomatoes

400mL passata

100mL vegetable stock

1 onion/leek

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp dried thyme

200g linguine

pinch of dried chilli flakes

olive oil

salt and pepper

2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped to serve

shaved parmesan, to serve

Method:

1. Dice eggplant into 1cm chunks

2. Finely chop tomatoes and dice onion/leek.

3. Thinly slice garlic.

4. Heat pan and add 1 T olive oil. Add 1 clove garlic, then add eggplant chunks. Sprinkle generously with salt and continue to cook on high heat, tossing the eggplant every few minutes to sear the sides. Add some olive oil if it looks too dry.

5. Remove the eggplant, or if you want to be quicker, then use a separate pan and cook simultaneously. Add oil then the other garlic clove, dried thyme and chilli flakes. Quickly add the onion/leek and cook for 2-3 minutes until brown.

6. Add the tomatoes, passata and stock, and simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, maybe a bit of sugar and/or extra chilli flakes.

7. Boil water, salt generously and cook linguine until al dente.

8. Once the pasta is done, add to the tomato mixture, mix through and stir in the eggplant.

9. Serve immediately with parsley and parmesan.

NB. If you're trying to get your vegetable quota up, then adding mushrooms or zucchini or one more vegetable is still good.

 Otherwise, if vegetarian is not your cup of tea, this is also pretty good with mince! Still onion first, then meat, then tomato, and mix in the eggplant at the end.