I found this Greek, traditionally made pasta and I am a sucker for nice packaging so I bought it. I also thought, let’s try it and see if we like it for the deli. I decided to prepare it with aubergines, zucchini and feta cheese. It’s not a fancy recipe, but it is really tasty and easy and nutritious.
For 4 persons, cut 2 aubergines and 3 zucchinis in strips. Sprinkle with salt and set them aside.
Prepare the pasta. It’s going to be more tasty if you boil it in vegetable broth instead of just water. In my case it was ready in 7 minutes. Drain and leave aside (try to keep a little of the water so that the pasta won’t stick).
Put two ripe tomatoes and one spring onion in the food processor but don’t completely liquidize them.
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil and add 2 garlic cloves. When you can smell the garlic add the aubergines and a couple of minutes later the zucchini. A couple of minutes later add the tomato sauce. Season and add some dried spearmint.
When the vegetables are tender (but still retain their shape) place them in an oven dish with the pasta. Mix everything well together and add 2 cups of feta cheese in small cubes. Before you put it in the oven (180 Celsius or 356 F, or gas mark 4) sprinkle with some olive oil. Remove from the oven 15 minutes later or when the feta cheese has melted. You can also add pitted olives if you want.
Serve with some basil leaves and fresh pepper. Kali oreksi (Bon appétit in Greek).
July 9th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
It took me a second to realize that “aubergines” are what we call “eggplant” here. I’m not sure why we call it that. There’s no relation to eggs although it IS a plant! Oh and I had fun doing a surf to find out about meze and how it’s done in different mediteranian countries. Do you have Arak in Greece?