eggplant + sage {pasta}

I admit it. I’m attracted to bright and shiny. And by bright and shiny I’m of course referring to technicolor vegetables. While I’m as respectful as the next girl of honestly lumpy, wart and all, heirloom tomatoes, there is something about a perfectly shiny, striated eggplant that cries out to me.

Last week I visited the Farmer’s Market in Garbetella. My usual farmer’s market was closed due to the massive Rolling Stones concert. For the ridiculously low rental price of 7000 Euros, the Stones not only got to use the Circo Massimo for their multimillion dollar concert, but the disruption basically shut down half of Rome.

Rather than get mad at the city of Rome for mismanaging this opportunity to bring in income to the depleted city coffers, I instead took it as a sign that I should visit Garbatella.

For those of you who live in Rome, the market in Garbatella is where all the vendors from the Farmer’s Market in Testaccio were evicted to 2 years ago. Not only was it a chance to see all my old friends, but I really loved the set up there. Much less crowded than Circo Massimo, and – as far as I could tell – a much bigger selection of produce.

But back to bright and shiny. My trusted organic vendor had not one but three varieties of drop dead gorgeous eggplants. Which I proceeded to over buy.

Grilling and stuffing them took care of most of them. But I was still left with these beauties by the end of the week. The truth? They were almost too pretty to cook up. They were more centerpiece material than main course ingredient.

Just before we left for Todi last Friday I received a package from my friend Beatrice. She’d been telling me about a new kind of pasta she is carrying, Busiate, from Sicily. Busiate are a type of handmade, curly cue pasta shape. But while other people make busiate, these were special, Beatrice told me. Made from an ancient variety of wheat, Tumminia, from the mill Molini del Ponte. Tumminia is the same grain that is used to make the famous Pane Nero di Castelvetrano and is stone ground. And in fact, the busiate were dark, rough and brown.

Their curly cue shape and what I expected would be their slightly sweet whole grain taste were just calling out to my beautiful eggplants. While I knew the melanzane would lose their beauty pretty quickly once cooked up into a sauce, I figured that pairing them with this special pasta was worth it.

I decided the dish should be hearty, and so thought of it as almost a ragu, but without the meat. The epplant got diced, and to add the hearty ragu-ish element I through in tons of sage.

The pasta cooked up just as I expected: slightly chewy, nutty with just a hint of sweetness. The perfect pairing for my beautiful eggplants. No longer quite so beautiful, but decidedly more delicious.

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eggplant and sage pasta

Prep 20 mins

Cook 40 mins

Total 60 mins

Author Elizabeth

Yield 6

Ingredients

• 4 medium eggplant, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large bunch of sage, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 500 grams/ 1 pound Busiate
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Pour olive oil into a pan big enough to eventually hold all the cooked pasta. Heat and add the diced eggplant. Stir and let cook. The eggplant will immediately absorb all of the olive oil, but don’t worry. As it cooks and softens, the oil will come back out.
2. When the eggplant is almost cooked, add the chopped sage, garlic and salt. Stir and continue cooking, adding a bit of water if things start to stick. Cook until the eggplant begins to fall apart and is very tender.
3. In the meantime bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.
4. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the pasta cooking water.
5. Heat the pan with the eggplant, and add the drained pasta, stirring to mix it up, adding a bit of the pasta water to scrape up the burnt bits and bring it all together.
6. Place the pasta into a serving bowl and add the cheese and the rest of the pasta water, a bit at a time, stirring to distribute evenly.
7. Serve with additional grated cheese on the table.

Notes

I made this dish using Tumminia flour Busiate pasta, which is quite special and I do recommend you try if possible. But, if you can't get it, feel free to use another twirly shaped pasta like fusilli.

The busiate which I used in this recipe were a gift from Gustiamo.