July and August are the months for that pasta dish PIno’s mother, Signora Vincenza, taught me. This Sicilian eggplant pasta dish is a hit with our Umbrian friends, too.
Do enjoy Signora Vincenza’s
Pasta alle Melanzane (for 4 – 6 persons)
Ingredients:
- 4 – 6 medium-sized eggplants
- Extra-virgin olive oil, q. b. (“quanto basta” or “as much as you need”)
- about 1/2 c. or so of sunflower seed oil (or other vegetable oil)
- Parmesan cheese, q. b.
- salt, q. b
- penne or rigatoni pasta (1 lb of pasta for every 5 persons)
For the sauce:
- 2 – 3 lbs of very ripe Roma tomatoes
- 2 – 3 garlic cloves (or more!)
- a white or yellow onion
- Extra-virgin olive oil, about 1/2 c
- generous handful of basil leaves
Cover sliced eggplants with water, adding a very generous amount of salt (“sale grosso” or “big salt” ie, not fine salt) – 2 or 3 handfuls. Use a heavy kitchen object to weight down the eggplants so that they stay under water. Let eggplants sit in water for about thirty minutes, thus leaching out the bitterness.
Drain eggplants and rinse twice in order to be sure all salt out. Pat dry.
Cover stainless steel frying pan with olive oil and add vegetable oil too so that the oil is about 1” deep, at least – for better frying. Heat olive oil and test to see if ready for frying by sliding in an eggplant slice.
If oil hot and sizzling and ready for frying, slide in other eggplant slices. Slices should not overlap but should fill pan. As a slice is browned, lift out with a fork and immediately slide in another slice so that oil does not smoke and burn.
As eggplant are fried, set on paper so that the oil is absorbed (I save the brown paper our bread comes in for frying needs).
You can make the tomato sauce while you are frying the eggplants. To do so, first wash well the tomatoes. Fill a large basin with water, put in the washed tomatoes and squash the tomatoes under water so that all seeds are left behind.
Slice onion and garlic cloves.
Put crushed tomatoes and generous amount of basil in large stainless steel sauce pan.
Add onion, garlic cloves, about 1/2 c or more Extra virgin olive oil and heat.
Sauce should simmer about 30 – 30 minutes until most of the water of tomatoes evaporates. Add salt, q. b.
Puree’ the sauce in a food mill.
Heat this tomato sauce gently as you cook the pasta in salted boiling water.
Drain pasta, add sauce and top with friend eggplants.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve. Buon appetito!
Click here for another Signora Vincenza eggplant recipe
Click here for another fresh tomato sauce recipe Signora Vincenza taught me
I can smell the tomatoes from here! My grandmother (who married a Sicilian) used to make a dish very much like this one, but she added ricotta cheese at the end. Thank you for this recipe, Anne!!!!
OMG!!!! I love this recipe!!!
Bev
Wonderful recipe! Our tomatoes are coming in like crazy so we’ve been making sauce every day. The eggplant will be a great addition. I hope it freezes well.
Great article!! Beautiful and delicious!