Today has been an aubergine kind of a day….. preparing food ready for tomorrow whilst things are nice and quiet…
I’m leaving in the link so that you can understand how the dish is made – there is a link to a video here:
I’d never come across Amatriciana N’casciata before…. until I found this amazing website…
Whilst it was quite fiddly to make, it was absolutely delicious and well worth the effort. One could easily leave out the bacon lardons and this would be an excellent vegetarian dish. It would make a great and unusual dish for a healthy dinner party.
Amatriciana N’casciata – 310 calories
Preparation Time: 1 hr
Cooking Time: 35 mins
Serves: 4
Calories per serving: 309.5
Ingredients
Rigatoni, Dry – 120g
Cheese, Ricotta – 150g
Onions, Brown – 111g
Garlic, Raw – 1 Clove/3g
Tomatoes, Chopped in Tomato Juice – 1 Can/400g
Peppers, Chilli, Dried, Flakes – ½ Tsp/1.5g
Oil, Olive – 1 Tsp/5ml
Aubergine, Raw – 2 Sm/500g
Cheese, Parmesan – 50g
Bacon, Lardons, Smoked – 75g
Method
Preparation: Peel and dice onion. Peel and finely dice garlic. Removes stalks from aubergines and slice thinly lengthwise (as thin as you are able to) into long thin slices. Finely grate the Parmesan cheese.
Preheat oven to 180°C/356°F
Heat a griddle pan over a medium heat until hot. Grill each slice of aubergine in batches in the griddle pan until charred and soft. If you don’t have a griddle, use a frying pan with NO OIL. Set aubergine slices to one side.
Pasta sauce time. Place bacon lardons into a pan with no oil with the onion. Cook on a medium heat until nice and crispy and onions are soft and golden. Add the chopped garlic cloves and the crushed chillies. Add the mixed herbs. Cook for 30 seconds and pour in the chopped tomatoes. Mix everything in and reduce the sauce down.
While the sauce is reducing, get your pasta on. When the pasta is al dente (not completely cooked) drain it and add to the sauce. Mix it all together and remove from the heat.
Take an oven proof dish (preferably metal). It has to be quite deep. Brush with a teaspoon of olive oil.
Line it with your slices of aubergine. First line the bottom, making sure all the pieces of aubergine overlap. Place them around the edges until all sides are covered.
Spoon in a layer of pasta so it comes up to about a third. Spoon in your ricotta, smoothing it out. Sprinkle with a layer of Parmesan (25g of what you have for this recipe) and then add the rest of the pasta.
Place the remaining aubergine slices over the top so it is covered. Cover with tin foil. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and remove the tin foil. Place it back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Place a plate on top of the dish, flip it and ease the tin off the pasta cake. Sprinkle over the remaining parmesan. Slice it up like a cake and tuck in!
Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal) 309.5
Protein (g) 18.2
Carbohydrate (g) 30.4
Fat (g) 12.7
Fruit & Veg 3.0
Fibre (g) 4.8