Another express summer recipe by Deb, using typical Mediterranean ingredients: the pasta salad with eggplant and sun-dried tomatoes.
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Here is a summer dish with a strong Mediterranean flavor: the pasta salad with eggplants and sun-dried tomatoes, excellent either hot or cold. Let’s see how to do! We’ll need:
• 14 oz (400 g) of short pasta
• 10,5 oz (300 g) of long eggplants
• 1,5 oz (40 g) of sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 spring onions
• 1/5 cup (20 g) of grated ricotta salata cheese (or feta or pecorino)
• ½ cup (60 g) of pine nuts • 20 basil leaves
• 1 fresh red chilli pepper
• 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt
First of all, cut the eggplants into circles about 1/10 inch (3 mm) thick.
Then soften the sun-dried tomatoes by soaking in hot water for 5 minutes; when they have softened, cut into strips.
In a pan, put the oil, the crushed garlic, the chopped chili pepper with the seeds removed, and the chopped spring onion, and brown for a few seconds.
Now add the eggplants and salt to taste; cook the eggplants with a ladle of hot water, then add the sun-dried tomatoes. Now boil the pasta in plenty of salted water.
When the eggplants have softened, add the roughly chopped basil leaves. Toast the pine nuts in a small non-stick pan.
Drain the pasta keeping a little cooking water, and add it to the vegetables. Finally, fold in the toasted pine nuts and the grated ricotta salata cheese.
Here is our pasta salad, serve it hot or cold, as desired… good, easy and quick!