strange_raptors (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strange_raptors) wrote2009-05-03 10:27 pm
strange_raptors) wrote2009-05-03 10:27 pm
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To formalise the start of my posting on dw I thought I'd give the recipe of today's dinner.
In the vegetable trolley, looking lost and forlorn was an aubergine. I really like aubergines. They can be really terrible, but I enjoy cooking with them and they tend to add a really nice flavour to dishes. They also have a real affinity with fat; they absorb it, and soften to delectable silken flesh. That's why they work so well with feta - the sharp cheese cuts through their softness and sets up a beautiful contrast. However, there was no feta in tonight's dinner. Tonight, there was pancetta.
A block of pancetta tends to live in the fridge. It's difficult to get very thin slices, but it's easy enough to cut cubes and thickish slices (sort of how I imagine bacon should be cut, before the invention of fine slicing machines - like the bacon in the Studio Ghibli version of Howl's Moving Castle). Anyway, I cubed the pancetta and L chopped the aubergine into cubes. The pasta went on (doesn't matter what sort, really. I used farfalle), and the pancetta went on a reasonably high heat. As soon as the fat began to render, the aubergine went into the pan and was left to fry with the pancetta until golden and soft. The pasta was drained, tossed with a bit of olive oil and some crushed garlic, then the aubergine and pancetta was added.
Result: Pasta with garlic and soft aubergine and crisp pancetta. Absolutely lovely.
In the vegetable trolley, looking lost and forlorn was an aubergine. I really like aubergines. They can be really terrible, but I enjoy cooking with them and they tend to add a really nice flavour to dishes. They also have a real affinity with fat; they absorb it, and soften to delectable silken flesh. That's why they work so well with feta - the sharp cheese cuts through their softness and sets up a beautiful contrast. However, there was no feta in tonight's dinner. Tonight, there was pancetta.
A block of pancetta tends to live in the fridge. It's difficult to get very thin slices, but it's easy enough to cut cubes and thickish slices (sort of how I imagine bacon should be cut, before the invention of fine slicing machines - like the bacon in the Studio Ghibli version of Howl's Moving Castle). Anyway, I cubed the pancetta and L chopped the aubergine into cubes. The pasta went on (doesn't matter what sort, really. I used farfalle), and the pancetta went on a reasonably high heat. As soon as the fat began to render, the aubergine went into the pan and was left to fry with the pancetta until golden and soft. The pasta was drained, tossed with a bit of olive oil and some crushed garlic, then the aubergine and pancetta was added.
Result: Pasta with garlic and soft aubergine and crisp pancetta. Absolutely lovely.
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1) You're round for dinner.
2) We have aubergines and pancetta.
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I'm sorry you can't eat eggplant - I suspect the recipe would work just as well with quite finely diced uncooked potato (or a larger dice of cooked potato), but then you might want to not have it with pasta (perhaps a nice salad or something instead). You could add a few chopped scallions if you wanted to give it a bit of a zing, too.