Orecchiette pasta with aubergine sauce

This recipe is, if you will, 'pasta alla norma' - a classic Sicilian pasta dish with aubergine sauce - revisited. It is made from orecchiette pasta mixed with fresh tomato sauce and fried aubergine, but to which we have added some lightly cooked cherry tomatoes and a lovely buffalo mozzarella cut into cubes. In short, a very special dish, just right perhaps for a low-key Sunday lunch, but decidedly Mediterranean and quite irresistible!

Ingredients

  • orecchiette 200 grams
  • passata 100 grams
  • tomatoes A handful of cherry tomatoes
  • aubergine A long aubergine
  • mozzarella cheese Buffalo milk mozzarella, 300g
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • garlic 1 clove
  • basil A few fresh basil leaves

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Barley Orecchiette

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Information
30 minutes Total time
20 minutes Active time
Serves 3 persons
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Preparation

Heat the garlic in a pan with some olive oil; add the tomato sauce and the washed and halved cherry tomatoes. Simmer over a low heat. Meanwhile, cut out the aubergine's core and then slice into strips. Fry the aubergine in hot oil, add salt and then set aside on kitchen paper. Cut the mozzarella into small cubes, and set these aside too. Cook the pasta in salted, boiling water. Once cooked, drain the orecchiette and toss in the prepared sauce, adding the mozzarella cubes, the fried aubergine and a few leaves of chopped basil.

Tips
When buying aubergine, press it gently with your fingers: it should be firm! If it's soft and its skin is wrinkled, don't buy it!
Trivia
Has this ever occurred to you? The aubergine is the star of many Italian dishes: for example, the famous 'caponata' aubergine stew, the equally famous 'parmigiana' aubergine and parmesan oven bake, and many other unique dishes that make Mediterranean cuisine so unmistakable.

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