Italian cuisine, like Italian fashion - everyone has heard about it, everyone wants it, and no one knows what makes it different. And we will not think!
We call pasta pasta, or spaghetti. Grandmother’s name “blue” will be ennobled in “eggplant”, oregano will be called “oregano”. Well, and on the table we will serve not just pasta with vegetable sauce, but "Pasta-Italiano-eggplant", that’s why the kids will be delighted.
Italian eggplant - general cooking principles
• Styling eggplant under Italian recipes they are used unpeeled. Vegetable cut into pieces, medium-sized straws or rings. To remove the bitterness, the crushed "little blue ones" are soaked in saline or kept under load, sprinkled with salt, and then washed.
• Eggplants are cooked in the oven in the form of casseroles or stewed with vegetables. Italian pasta with eggplant is especially popular.
• The essential ingredients of any Italian dish: tomatoes and cheese. Use fresh tomatoes preserved in their own juice or tomato paste. If we talk about cheeses, then in most cases hard varieties are used, less often "Mozzarella". Homemade homemade cheese will do.
• Pasta - any kind of pasta. To prepare pasta with eggplant in Italian, you should take products mixed with flour from the so-called "durum" wheat varieties. To prevent pasta from sticking together, they are dipped only in boiling water. Cook with a slight boil until fully cooked or left slightly undercooked. Ready pasta must be washed with hot water.
Italian style eggplant pasta with canned tomatoes
Ingredients:
• 200 gr. spaghetti;
• one small eggplant;
• ripe red tomato;
• 60 gr. any mild cheese;
• a clove of garlic, small.
Cooking method:
1. First cut the eggplant lengthwise into plates half a centimeter thick, and then across, strips of the same width.
2. Pour two tablespoons of vegetable oil into the pan and lightly fry the chopped vegetable on it. Do not put in poorly heated oil, the flesh will quickly absorb it.
3. As soon as the strips of the vegetable become transparent, add the tomato cut into small cubes and bring the vegetable frying to a readiness.
4. At the end, add salt to your taste, add the garlic squeezed on the press, mix and remove from heat.
5. Boil the spaghetti until cooked, and rinse them with hot water. Dry, put in a colander, then arrange in plates, add hot eggplant sauce on top and sprinkle it with cheese, finely chopped.
Italian style eggplant stew with almonds
Ingredients:
• two medium eggplants;
• five small tomatoes;
• 50 gr. seedless olives;
• two tablespoons of capers;
• head of sweet red onion;
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar;
• mixture "Provencal herbs" - 1/2 tsp;
• greens of curly parsley;
• olive oil - 60 gr.;
• garlic;
• a teaspoon of oregano;
• two tablespoons of chopped, roasted almonds.
Cooking method:
1. Wash the parsley, shake the water from it and wipe dry with a towel. Separate the stems and chop them lightly with a knife. Grind greens separately.
2. Cut eggplant and tomatoes into large pieces, chop the onions finely with a heavy sharp knife.
3. Pour capers with cold water, soak in it for about a quarter of an hour and dry well.
4. Heat the olive oil over high heat and dip the eggplant slices into it. Sprinkle them with oregano, lightly salt and fry them for 5 minutes, without ceasing to mix.
5. Add onions, add chopped stems of parsley and chopped garlic. Put capers cut along the olives. Sprinkle everything with a mixture of "Provencal herbs", sprinkle with vinegar. If necessary, add a little extra virgin olive oil and continue cooking until the acid has evaporated.
6. Reduce the flame to medium, add the tomatoes to the vegetable mass and simmer well, simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Then, to your taste, season the vegetables with ground pepper and remove the sample for salt. If necessary, add. Pour chopped parsley, almonds and mix thoroughly, remove from heat.
8. Serve hot with a pasta garnish or on your own.
Italian Baked Eggplant
Ingredients:
• head of a bitter onion;
• ten green pitted olives;
• three large eggplants;
• 150 gr. Mozzarella cheese
• 40 gr. cheese, preferably Parmesan;
• mix "Italian herbs" - to taste;
• 50 ml of olive, or well-refined vegetable oil;
• 30 ml of balsamic vinegar;
• four large cloves of garlic;
• a tablespoon of sugar;
• red tomatoes - 5 pcs., Small size;
• 40 gr. capers;
Cooking method:
1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and cover with cold water for 20 minutes. Then wipe the vegetables dry, put on a baking sheet with slices up and moisten a little with olive oil. In the oven, warmed up to 180 degrees, at a medium level, install a baking tray with "little blue" and bake for half an hour.
2. Small, slices, chop onions, cut olives into thin half rings, chop capers. Slightly fry the chopped ingredients in the oil for at least five minutes and sprinkle with "Provencal herbs".
3. Salt to your taste, add sugar, slightly pepper and mix. Pour in balsamic vinegar and simmer on the very minimum heat for another two minutes.
4. Tomatoes and "Mozzarella" cut into circles no thicker than 0.5 cm.
5. Gently place the mugs of tomato on the baked eggplant, spread the onion fried with olives and capers on top, and lay the “Mozzarella” on top of it.
6. Sprinkle everything with Parmesan crushed on a fine grater and put in the oven for 10 minutes.
Italian style eggplant pasta with mushrooms
Ingredients:
• 350 gr. thin pasta;
• one large eggplant;
• garlic;
• 350 gr. unsalted tomato paste;
• 250 gr. fresh mushrooms;
• half a liter of boiled water;
• olive oil;
• a bunch of young herbs - choose to taste.
Cooking method:
1. Rinse eggplant and mushrooms well, dry. Cut the mushrooms into medium-sized slices, and “blue” thin straws. If you have a large vegetable, soak its slices in saline, then rinse and dry well.
2. Grind one clove of garlic with a knife and dip in well-heated oil. As soon as the garlic flavor starts, add the eggplant and simmer for three minutes.
3. Slightly salt, add the chopped mushrooms and, stirring well, continue to simmer for another three minutes. Put eggplant fried with mushrooms in a bowl and temporarily set aside.
4. Pour dry pasta in a deep frying pan with water. Add tomato and chopped garlic, slightly salt, pepper and put on an intense fire. Keep stirring, bring to a boil, then lower the temperature and continue cooking until the pasta is soft.
5. In the prepared pasta, lay out previously laid mushrooms with eggplant, mix, sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve immediately.
Italian Eggplant Casserole
Ingredients:
• 800 gr. "little blue ones";
• one large onion;
• four tablespoons of wheat flour;
• 800 gr. tomato, canned in tomato juice;
• two eggs;
• 60 gr. cheese, Parmesan or other hard varieties;
• extra virgin olive oil;
• to taste - oregano;
• garlic - 3 cloves.
Cooking method:
1. First prepare the little blue ones. Cut the vegetables into circles of a centimeter thick and put in a colander, pouring each layer with salt. Place a round plaque or a shallow plate on top and place the load. Enough even a half liter jar of water. Be sure to place a deep container of smaller diameter under the colander so that the bitterness coming out of the “blue” drips into it.
2. After 20 minutes, remove the load, and rinse the eggplants, washing the remaining bitterness and salt well from the pieces, and dry.
3. Peel the canned tomatoes.
4. Chop the onions in small cubes and fry them in olive oil. Do not fry, it is enough to bring the pieces to transparency.
5. Sprinkle the fried onion with two tablespoons of flour, mix thoroughly. Immediately put peeled tomatoes in it, pour in the juice remaining in the jar and mix well again.
6. Strain the vegetable sauce over low heat for 10 minutes. Add finely chopped or grated garlic, oregano, slightly add salt, you can pepper a little, remove from heat.
7. In the remaining flour, roll the dried eggplant mugs and fry them in the calcined butter, having previously dipped in the beaten egg.
8. In a heat-resistant form, put a layer of fried “blue” ones, sprinkle them with large cheese crumbs and pour half of the tomato sauce. Put the eggplants on top again, sprinkle them with cheese and pour over the remaining gravy.
9. Place the pan on a wire rack set at the middle level of the oven and bake for 40 minutes when heated to 180 degrees. Do not forget to preheat the oven.
10. Let the casserole stand for ten minutes and serve only after that.
Italian style eggplant pasta with fresh tomatoes
Ingredients:
• "little blue" - 2 pcs.;
• two small bell peppers;
• pasta of the highest grade - 500 gr.;
• 50 gr. fresh hard cheese, preferably Parmesan;
• five large tomatoes;
• a tablespoon of refined vegetable oil;
• two tablespoons of salt;
• "Provencal herbs" - to taste;
• five small cloves of garlic.
Cooking method:
1. Eggplant, without peeling, cut into circles, two or more centimeters thick. In a saucepan, in two liters of cold water, dissolve a couple of tablespoons of salt and soak the “blue” pieces in the prepared solution. The exposure time is two hours. Then rinse well and put in a colander to dry.
2. Lay out the dried circles on a baking sheet, moisten with oil and set to bake for a quarter of an hour, at 180 degrees.
3. First cut the tomatoes in half, and then thinly cut each half in half. Crush the garlic with a knife, chop the sweet pepper with a thin straw.
4. On a small fire, warm the vegetable oil, dip the pepper into it and sauté until soft.
5. Add the baked eggplant mugs, tomatoes and continue to simmer at minimum heat for about a quarter of an hour.
6. Salt, season vegetable roast with "Provencal herbs", put finely chopped garlic. Stir and cook until the temperature drops slightly. This will take about five minutes.
7. Simultaneously with the preparation of the sauce, boil the pasta, rinse it well with hot water and filter its leftovers on a colander. Arrange on plates, add eggplant sauce and sprinkle finely shredded cheese on top.
Italian eggplant - cooking tips and tricks
• So that pieces of eggplant do not absorb a lot of oil and keep their shape when stewed with other vegetables, they are dipped only in well-warmed oil and fry for the first three minutes over high heat. For the same purpose, it is not recommended to mix vegetables often, therefore, so that the sauce does not burn, it is languished with minimal heating.
• If the blue ones are soaked in saline or sprinkled with salt, be sure to rinse and rinse thoroughly with water. Before additionally adding salt, take a sample.
• When preparing pasta with eggplant in Italian, first prepare the eggplant sauce and only then cook the pasta so that they do not have time to cool. By the way, how to cook pasta?
