Spaghetti with Eggplant and Taralli
One of my absolute favorite travel destinations when it comes to food is Puglia, Italy. Puglia has this wonderful mix of land and sea and their specialities include not only various fish and meat dishes but also a variety of pastas and my all time favorite: burrata.
Today I decided to cook something a little different which reminds me of the times spent in Puglia: Vegan Spaghetti with Eggplant and Taralli. For those who don’t know Taralli: they are a very common snack in the southern Italian Peninsula. They are like a mix of breadsticks and crackers and are absolutely delicious. Taralli come in various different tastes, the original ones are just with olive oil but fennel and peperoncino are also eaten a lot.
The was in which the eggplant is cooked for this recipe is also quite special as it is blended into a sauce. This makes the pasta very delicate and the sauce doesn’t overpower the taste of the taralli and the tomatoes.
I hope you enjoy this dish - if you have any questions please refer to the Q&A at the bottom :)
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cooking Time: 20 Min
Ingredients (2 servings):
Spaghetti - 250g
Aubergine - 1 Large
Cherry Tomatoes - around 10/12
Taralli - around 6/7 (you can use different types of Taralli, we used taralli al peperoncino for this recipe)
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
How to:
Start by washing and cutting the aubergine (as you can see from the first image the pieces don’t need to be cut too small).
Cook the aubergine pieces in a pan with some olive oli (add 2 glasses of water too in order for the aubergine not to stick to the pan and burn). Cook for 10 min.
While the aubergine cooks you can start preparing the taralli. This step is super easy, just grind them in a bowl with your hands (Image 2). You can also start heating the water for the pasta.
Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half or quarters depending how small you want them to be.
Once the 10 minutes have passed it’s time to blend the aubergine in a mixer until you have a paste.
Put the paste back in the pan and add the cherry tomatoes. Leave to cook for another 10 min.
At this point your water should also be boiling. Add some salt and the spaghetti and let cook.
Pour some of the cooking water from the pasta into the aubergine pan. This will help “amalgamare” or amalgamate (combine all the ingredients together).
Once the pasta is cooked you can drain it and throw it into the pan where you are cooking the aubergine paste.
Mix well and serve on your plates. Then sprinkle the crushed taralli on top.
Enjoy :)
Q&A
1) What are taralli?
Taralli are a very common snack in the southern Italian Peninsula. They are like a mix of breadsticks and crackers and are absolutely delicious.
2) Where can I buy taralli?
You can buy them in many different shops: Globus and Jelmoli have them as well as the Fine Food selection at Coop and many Italian specialty stores.
3) Should I eat this pasta with parmesan?
I would not recommend eating this pasta with parmesan as it already has a multitude of tastes that mix very well together - adding cheese would make it too much.
4) Do I need special Spaghetti?
Absolutely not, I used Barilla n5