When I lived in London my life was, as you can imagine, very different from life Up The Mountain. For a start I had a Proper Grown Up Job. And I travelled a lot, sometimes spending weeks living out of a suitcase or briefly stopping at home for a pit stop to repack the case. At times like this my best friends were the local take away menus. Luckily, I lived in an area that boasted an amazing amount of pretty good quality restaurants who could get something tasty to my doorstep within about 30 minutes of me placing a call.
When I moved to Spain, it took me a while to adjust to the fact that when I didn´t feel all that much like cooking it was either Big Man´s special fried eggs, or jamon, cheese and melon to eat. The nearest take aways or delivery services are, I imagine, in a town a 45 minute drive away.
Finally I realised that I could still have something tasty to eat in about the same amount of time as it would have taken me to decide what to order from the take away menu, make the call and wait for the delivery guy to show up.
This is one of my speedy suppers. In the time it takes for a large pot of water to come to the boil and the pasta to cook, I have a delicious sauce made to serve with my favourite pasta, plenty of grated parmesan and I even get to swig a glass of wine while it´s cooking. Well, I need a dash of wine for the sauce.
Per person you need half an aubergine finely diced, two cloves of crushed garlic, two medium tomatoes peeled and chopped, a large slug of wine, a tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs (I used a mixture of parsley and basil), seasoning and olive oil. I also use a crushed dried chili as I like my sauce spicy, but this is up to you.
Put the pot of water on to boil and sauté the aubergine until brown. Now add the garlic and once it is softened add the tomato and seasoning and the chili if using. Let the tomato cook down a little by which time you will probably be ready to put the pasta into the pot. Add your wine and herbs to the sauce and let it bubble away gently until the pasta is cooked and ready to be drained. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
The sauce is a little like the one used in Pasta alla Norma (ChgoJohn has a fine example of it here and Linda at Savouring Every Bite here). These recipes give you a deeper tasting, richer sauce as it´s cooked for longer. Yum!
Now all you need to do is mix the sauce into the pasta, grate or shave over plenty of your favourite cheese, pour another glass of wine and think about how you are putting the fast food delivery services out of business.
Chica Andaluza 