Eggplants are an excellent choice as a vegetable. They are nutrient rich and taste superb roasted up. A good tip is to cut them into 12 millimetre (about half an inch) thick slices, and then into strips about 25 ml wide (one inch). Sprinkle with olive oil and then throw a little Celtic Sea Salt on top. Leave for ten minutes, then roast.
This recipe is reminiscent of exotic Persian flavours combining eggplant, currants and cumin, this sauce is stunningly different but simple to make. Choose the best ingredients.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ medium capsicum, cut into small pieces
- 1 medium eggplant, cut into strips
- ½ tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 500g bottled tomato pasta sauce
- ½ cup currants
- Pinch salt, optional
- Pinch paprika powder, optional
- 12 pitted kalamata olives
- 2 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the capsicum until it softens.
- Add the eggplant strips to the pan and mix with the capsicum.
- Cover the pan and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until the eggplant strips soften and start turning golden brown.
- Add the cumin and garlic and fry for 1 minute.
- Mix in the tomato pasta sauce, currants, pinch of salt, pinch of hot paprika and an extra ½ cup of water.
- Allow the sauce to simmer, half-covered, for another 10 minutes, until flavours cook through.
- Toss in the olives and coriander and serve the sauce piping hot on top of cooked pasta. Both spirali and penne pasta work well.
