Pasta with aubergines
What souvenirs do you bring back from your travels? I always look for and bring back interesting cookbooks with recipes of the national cuisine of the country I'm returning from. Even my friends, knowing about my hobby, sometimes spoil me with such tourist gifts.
And from my last trip to Bulgaria I brought not a book, but a wonderful magazine with recipes, which happened to catch my eye in a supermarket. Thankfully, the Bulgarian language, like all Slavic languages, is close and understandable almost without a dictionary.
And in this magazine I came across a recipe for pasta with eggplant. I confess, I adore eggplants - when the season comes, all the time I try to cook something from them. But my husband is not a big fan of vegetables, he is sure that the best decoration of the plate and any dish is a piece of meat. There is no meat in this recipe, so I was a bit hesitant to cook it, but I decided to. And, oh wonder! My husband confessed that even though there is no meat in this dish, it is still very tasty! So, while the season of fresh and excellent quality vegetables is not over yet, hurry up to prepare this dish - you won't regret it! Besides, this dish will turn out lean if you replace the cheese with vegetarian cheese or exclude it altogether.
Constituents (for 4 servings):
- pasta (pasta) - 400 gr.
- eggplant - 1 pc.
- onion - 1 small head
- garlic - 2 cloves
- tomatoes - 350 gr.
- chili - 1 piece (optional)
- sunflower oil - 2-3 tbsp.
- salt, pepper - to taste
- dried oregano - to taste
- basil
- balsamic vinegar - 1 tbsp.
- parmesan - 50 gr.
Preparation of pasta with eggplant.
Clean the vegetables. Finely chop the onion and garlic, cut the eggplant into small cubes.
Allow the onion and garlic to be cut into small cubes.
Finely chop the tomatoes.
Heat the sunflower oil in a skillet and fry the eggplants in it for 5 minutes, until they soften a bit.
Add the onions, garlic, origano, and finely chopped hot peppers if desired, and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
Then add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and about 150 ml of water, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes - the liquid from the tomatoes will evaporate and the sauce will thicken.
Add the tomatoes to the sauce.
Salt and pepper the eggplant sauce to taste.
In a separate pot, boil water and boil the pasta according to the instructions.
Strain the pasta and return it to the saucepan.
Place the pasta in a plate, pour the sauce over it, sprinkle with finely chopped basil leaves and sprinkle with grated cheese.
For men, if desired, decorate the dish with a piece of meat ;)
Enjoy!"