Tag: eggplant

Eggplant paste, the light revolution – Italian Cuisine

How not to give up a pasta dish even when the low-carb diet asks us to stay away from pasta. The tastiest ideas for a good and light summer

Dieting is stressful for many reasons: organization and deprivation turn every meal into a real challenge. Here we are counting calories, writing menus on the calendar and closing everything we can't eat in the pantry. "Better not look," we say as we move away from our eyes and hearts biscuits, tarallini, chips, puddings, chocolate bars, snacks and even pasta. Are you sure you can do without it?
We do not. Despite the strict diet we are unable to deprive ourselves of a good dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce, perhaps perfumed with some basil leaves. And since eating them every day could put all the efforts made so far into play, we found the idea of summer light: eggplant pasta!

Like spaghettoni

To use aubergines instead of pasta, we decided to use them as if they were big spaghetti to season. To make them, the first operation to do is to cut the aubergines vertically and proceed to cut them into thin strips.

At this point it will be possible to put them in a colander that we will use to dry them with a bit of salt and remove the excess.

How to cook them

Once softened, the aubergines are ready to be cooked. If you are tempted to parboil them as you do with pasta, stop: they would absorb too much water, swelling up like real sponges. Better to sauté in a pan with a few minutes with very little oil and a pinch of salt. Stop before reaching the gilding phase and choose the condiment that you like best.

Our idea

Given the great heat and the desire to remain light, we advise you to choose light and fresh condiments so as not to weigh down this dietetic dish. We opted for cherry tomatoes and prawn tails, but feel free to create. Eggplant noodles are in fact good also simply served with olives, capers and cherry tomatoes, but they also lend themselves to being seasoned with fresh vegetables, anchovies and flakes of pecorino!

The alternative

This technique is so beautiful that we can't stop there. Try preparing delicious vegetable noodles with zucchini, carrots and beets. They will also be delicious simply seasoned with garlic, oil and chilli.

Lamb recipe in chickpea and eggplant crust – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

1 an already cleaned rack of lamb
150 g dry chickpeas
2 aubergines
2 jars of whole yogurt
mint
fresh coriander
marjoram
thyme
extra virgin olive oil
butter
pepper
salt

Duration: 9 h 20 min

Level: Middle

Dose: 6 people

For the recipe of lamb in a chickpea and eggplant crust, soak the chickpeas in water for at least 8 hours. Finally drain and coarsely chop 50 g with the knife; blend the rest in cream with a couple of tablespoons of oil and water and a generous spoonful of chopped mint, marjoram, thyme and coriander. Finally mix the pureed part with the chopped chickpeas.
For the aubergines: Divide the aubergines in half lengthwise, season with oil, salt and pepper and arrange them on a plate lined with baking paper with the pulp turned upwards. Bake at 160 ° C for 40-45 minutes. Take them out of the oven, dig them
three half eggplants with a spoon, obtaining the pulp, chop it with a knife and drain it through a sieve for about ten minutes. Then season it with a little oil, season with salt, if necessary, and flavor with mint leaves.
Lamb: Salt and pepper the carré and brown it in a pan with oil and butter on a high heat for 3-4 minutes per side. Place the carré on a plate lined with baking paper and cover it with the chickpea cream. Cover the bones with aluminum to prevent them from burning. Bake at 250 ° C placing the plate at half height; after 20 minutes add some butter on top of the chickpea crust and bring the plate up higher, bringing it closer to the grill. Remove from the oven after 7-8 minutes.
Season the yogurt jars with oil, salt and pepper and distribute in small bowls. Divide the carré into portions, serve with the chopped aubergines, the yogurt and the aubergine set aside. Complete with mint strips.

Chocolate eggplant parmigiana – Italian Cuisine

A traditional recipe for an unexpected dessert: here is the sweet eggplant parmigiana

Chocolate eggplant parmigiana. Yes, you heard right: this is a traditional recipe typical of Amalfi Coast. A luscious dessert, which involves the use of a sauce with dark chocolate, candied fruit, almonds is Amaretti biscuits. Eggplants are doubly fried: if you are on a diet, this is not the recipe for you, but we assure you that the combination is explosive!

The origins of eggplant parmigiana with chocolate

There are many legends behind this recipe: some believe it was created by monks of Atrani or Tramonti, who initially combined fried aubergines with a liqueur sauce, later replaced with chocolate. Others argue that it was the Augustinian nuns, already inventors of other typical sweets, such as struffoli and rococo.

Even if it doesn't look like a summer dessert, this dessert is consumed a Maiori just in the period of splendor of the aubergines and, in particular, on the occasion of the feast of Mid-August.

The recipe for eggplant parmigiana with chocolate

Try yourself to surprise everyone with this original and delicious recipe.

Ingredients

For the sauce and the filling

Sugar 400 g
Dark chocolate 250 g
Bitter cocoa powder 100 g
Water 500 ml
Flour 60 g
Flaked almonds 60 g
Amaretti 100 g
Candied fruit 100 g

For aubergines

Eggplant 1 kg
Flour 150 g
Eggs 4
Seed oil

Method

Stuffed

Cut 200 g of dark chocolate into small pieces. Pour 250 ml of water into a saucepan, place it on the stove over low heat and melt 400 g of sugar, stirring. Add the chopped dark chocolate and melt.

Separately, sift the cocoa powder and 60 g of flour, add another 250 ml of cold water and beat with a whisk, until the lumps are eliminated. Pour this mixture into the saucepan and cook, continuing to stir until the cream is thick. Let it cool.

Coarsely chop the macaroons, candied fruit, almonds and the remaining 50 g of dark chocolate.

Eggplant

Pour the remaining flour into a dish and beat the eggs in a bowl.

Cut the aubergines along the length and cover them with coarse salt for an hour, so as to eliminate the water of vegetation. Rinse the aubergines, dry them and fry them for the first time in the oil. Let them drain and fry them a second time, passing them first in the beaten egg and in the flour. You can flavor them to taste once fried, for example by passing them in sugar with cinnamon or grated lemon rind.

Pour a little sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, make a layer of eggplant then cover with more sauce. Sprinkle a little with the filling of macaroons and dried fruit and proceed creating the layers.

Bake at 100 ° C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool and decorate with almonds, crumbled amaretti and, to taste, fresh mint.

The variant

There is also a variant of this dessert that does not include final cooking in the oven. After having fried the aubergines and created the layers, just let the parmigiana rest in the fridge for a few hours and then serve.

Another variation concerns the cream, which can be made even more delicious. It can also be prepared with milk instead of water, melting dark chocolate and bitter cocoa.