Butta la Pasta

Pasta… I can never get enough of eating pasta! So many shapes, flavors, and varieties; fresh or dry; long or short; with eggs or without; filled pasta or plain pasta… the list is endless. Pasta is loved all over the world from people of all ages yet no one prepares it better than Italians — al dente — pasta cooked to perfection, dressed with any sauce you can imagine, accompanied by any ingredient you deem fit, creativity can produce a million recipe! Try this:

Serves 4

• olive oil
• 2 aubergines, diced
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 4 fresh tomatoes, peeled and deseeded
• 75g pine nuts
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 5 tblsp tomato paste
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 400g long pasta (pappardelle or lasagnette)
• 100g pitted black olives
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• chopped parsley

[caption id=”attachment_162" align=”aligncenter” width=”300" caption=”Tomato Sauce with Aubergines and Pine Nuts”]

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Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the aubergines and onions for 10 minutes until golden. Stir in chopped tomatoes, pine nuts and crushed garlic. Add the tomato paste and stock and cook for 5 minutes. In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to packet instructions until al dente. Drain the pasta and put in the frying pan with the sauce, add olives, salt and pepper and toss until combine for 1 minute. Serve with parsley and if you like, some grated parmesan.

[caption id=”attachment_163" align=”aligncenter” width=”300" caption=”Pasta with Aubergine Sauce and Pine Nuts”]

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