“Pairing walnut and aubergine sounds exotic, but combined with fresh tomato and ricotta, the flavours come together in an unmistakably Italian way. Fresh ricotta lightens the sauce and gives it a creamy quality; tomatoes provide colour and acidity; aubergine lends its golden flesh; and walnuts impart a rich, mellow flavour”.

• 680 g tomato polpa
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 300 g eggplant, diced
• olive oil, for frying
• 500 g fettucine
• 200 g ricotta cheese
• 12 walnuts; halves, chopped
• parmesan cheese
• basil leaves, torn

Place tomatoes, oil, salt and pepper in a medium pan and cook slowly for 20minutes. Toss eggplant in olive oil and spread on a baking sheet and place in a 230ºC until golden. Combine eggplant and tomato sauce adjust seasonings and keep warm. Cook Fettuccini in salted water until al dente.

Place ricotta in a warm serving bowl and add the chopped walnuts and 2 to 3 tablespoons of cooking water and stir until a cream forms. Drain pasta and toss with ricotta mixture, add tomato/eggplant sauce and toss again. Dust with parmesan and basil leaves. Serve with extra parmesan.

Notes : I chopped the Walnuts in a food processor with a couple of pulses. In retrospect I’m glad I did this, if the walnut chunks were too large it would not have blended well with the ricotta cream and overpowered the texture of the sauce. remember you’re flavouring the ricotta cream and giving it a gritty texture, nut throwing chunks of walnut into the sauce.

Secondly, I know the name of the recipe is “Fettucine…” I used Cellentani, which are pasta tubes curled into a spiral, which worked a treat. Use whatever floats your boat.

Source : Verdura – Vegetables Italian Style : Page 201 (I converted to metric and changed some minor stuff around) Italian: Fettuccine al Doppio Gusto

Servings/Yield : 6 servings

Rating : 5 out of 5

Difficulty : Moderately Easy

Cuisine : European : Mediterranean : Italian

Course : Main

Tags: aubergine, cheese, eggplant, italian, Mediterranean, nuts, pasta, recipe, ricotta, vegetarian, walnut