Tagliatelle with tomato and aubergine sauce recipe

Poor blog, sorry I neglected you for a long time. Let me repay you with this gem: my fave pasta recipe. This one is for those of you who like a thick, tasty tomato sauce to go with your pasta.

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 800 g Canned roma tomatoes (quickly chop in can with butter knife)
• 25 g Garlic (around 5 medium sized cloves), coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup Olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion, diced
• 1 1/2 bay leaves (large)
• 1/2 – 1 tsp dried greek oregano (dried on stem)
• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• salt

Ingredients for the eggplant:

• 1 large (jumbo!) eggplant
• more salt
• dried herbs (basil, oregano, etc)
• more olive oil

Ingredients for the pasta:

• 400 g Tagliatelle (egg ones are nice)
• around 4 L water
• 2 tbsp butter/margarine
• pepper

1. Prepare the sauce by dumping chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup olive oil, garlic and onions into large saucepan
2. Turn up heat until simmering, add bay leaves, oregano, salt (to taste, probably 1-2 tsp) and sugar (1/2 tablespoon)
3. Turn down low and maintain simmer for 2 hours (or until water has evaporated to give thick sauce). Do not go for coffee break yet.
4. Cut eggplant into thick slices and leave to soak in cold, salty water (around 2 tbsp salt/L) for 30 min or longer. Now you’re allowed to take your coffee break!
5. About 40 mins before your tomato sauce is done, drain and dry the eggplant.
6. Rub olive oil into the eggplant slices and fry with more olive oil as desired. Place slices on paper towel to dry.
7. Cut eggplant into bite sized slivers and fry again for 5 min on low heat with a pinch of dried herbs and a good pinch of salt.
8. Cook pasta in 3.5 L salted water or as described on package. When al dente, take off heat and add 0.5 L cold water, stand for 1 min.
9. Drain in colander, melt 2 tbsp butter/margarine in the pot and return drained pasta to pot. Stir briefly, adding pepper.
10. Mix in eggplant slices.
11. Taste tomato sauce, adding a bit of pepper if necessary
12. Stir in tomato sauce and stand on low heat for 1-2 min. Serve hot.

I’ve tried a lot of recipes for tomato sauces, this was definitely the best. It takes time, but it’s worth it – next time I do it i’ll make a big batch and save some for later. Enjoy…

Looking different

Has anyone ever told you that you look different from before– but neither one of you can figure out what the hell they’re talking about? It’s an interesting occurrence.. but at the same time slightly dumbfounding and annoying. Makes you want to reply: “You look different too; you look just a tiny bit more slappable than you used to.” Now there’s a word you won’t find The Oxford Paperback

My first blog: the ideal wok

After our last wok disintegrated whilst cooking a meal, I was recently forced to search for a new wok for our kitchen arsenal (I lasted for about a week without one before my sanity became questionable). Being a scientist, I did a bit a research and sampling before buying – it’s surprising how hard it is to find a decent wok these days! They appear to all come with a slathering of non-stick Teflon coating, and have a flattened bottom with some bullshit red-dot heating indicator on them. The main purpose of a wok is to sear foods at high temperatures, temperatures at which Teflon would decompose and release fluorinated hydrocarbons into your food. Nice! As I cook on a gas burner with indented grating on it, there’s no need for me to use a flat-bottomed wok. Even if an indented grating was not present, a wok’s centre of gravity should ensure it stays upright on a flat surface. The temperature indicator is also redundant, as you should always heat a wok up until its smoking before adding any oil, and then wait until the oil smokes before adding food. Simple as that.

So there I was, searching through all the cookery stores for a good quality, heavy, round-bottomed cast iron wok. Guess where I found one? From the “home-brand” section at K-mart! At just under $40, I found a bog standard 30″ cast iron wok with no bullshit coating. Its bottom surface was slightly flattened, but nowhere near to the extent of others I encountered. I’m a happy cook!

Next blog: loving your work