Gluten free with appropriate pasta
This recipe is very freely adapted from
one of Jamie Oliver’s. Firstly I tweaked it so that it just made
one serving, then I altered it again for this blog, to serve two,
and then I adapted it for a voyaging locker, which probably doesn’t
include fresh basil, but might and should, include a jar of pesto.
Before going any further, not all jars of pesto are created equal.
Some contain a ghastly green purée, while others look like something
you’d be quite proud to make yourself and have a delightful
texture, just like the Real Thing. When I first came across jars of
pesto, I was inclined to believe what it said on the label about
having to be kept refrigerated. However, my local supermarket sells
small jars at a very reasonable price and as I wanted to try out
different recipes for calzone, I thought I’d probably get through
the jar quite quickly, anyway. I used most of it and then out of
curiosity, left the near-empty jar in my locker. It kept for
weeks.
I was also surprised how good it tasted: the one that looked
the best value, “Pam’s” is not an expensive brand, so therefore
there wasn’t much chance of it being made with Extra Virgin Olive
Oil, Pine nuts or Pecorino cheese - all of which would be found in a
traditional pesto. In fact the ingredients were: canola oil, 35%
basil, sunflower seeds, cheese (unspecified), garlic, sugar :-(, salt
and natural flavours, so it’s rather surprising that it does taste
so good and implies that the best part of the pesto is the basil.
My “Pam’s” Pesto also included three e-numbers in the
ingredient list: E202 - potassium sorbate, E270 - lactic acid and
E300 - ascorbic acid, and I thought that before suggesting that
others put it in their lockers, I should see what these were. I try
to avoid ultra-processed foods, and this certainly looked a bit like
one. I had a look online and even the most hysterical of
‘health-food’ sites seemed pretty chilled about lactic and
ascorbic acid (which is just another name for vitamin C). There was
a bit more tooth sucking about potassium sorbate, although it is
derived from sorbic acid, which occurs naturally in rowan berries.
It is very commonly used in all sorts of food production and the
worst that anyone had to say about it was that if it is consumed in
high doses during pregnancy, it might effect the DNA. Personally, I
feel quite happy about my jar of pesto: my only genuine reservation
is that it contains cheese, and I prefer to eat a vegan diet. The
reason I’m rabbiting on about this is because fresh basil doesn’t
keep well at all - even if you have a fridge - and for something like
this recipe, you wouldn’t want more than a quarter of a cup, which
wouldn’t use up a whole bunch. However, by all means make your own
pesto if you prefer!
The recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, but I
find those miniature plum tomatoes are even better, if you can lay
hands on them. If they are tiny, double the quantity.
Serves
2
Ingredients
1 large or 2 small aubergine
olive oil OR olive oil and butter
salt
penne,
pasta spirals or similar
2 tbsp
pesto
Pecorino cheese or "Parmegan"
6 cherry tomatoes
Method:
- Cut the aubergine in half. Rub it – particularly the flesh, with oil and put it on a well-oiled baking sheet. Roast it at 180° for 35 min. Or cook it in the pressure cooker until it’s tender, cut it in half, scoop out the flesh and briefly fry it in a little oil so that the flesh is lightly browned.
- While it’s cooking, cut the tomatoes in half. The original recipe says to remove the seeds, because of their bitterness, but I don’t bother. I generally find cherry tomatoes are quite sweet and the seeds not very intrusive. Then cut them into fine dice.
- When the aubergine is thoroughly soft, let it cool and scoop out the flesh. Chop it all up, put it into a bowl and keep warm.
- Boil a pan of hot salted water and add the pasta.
- Pour the pesto over the aubergine and mix it all up. Add olive oil and/or butter for taste and texture.
- Now add a little bit of cheese.
- As soon as the pasta is ready, add some of the water to the aubergine mix, so that you have a saucy consistency.
- Mix in the tomatoes.
- Tip in the pasta and serve.
Pass round extra cheese, and maybe pine nuts,
chopped almonds, or sunflower seeds at the table.
Notes:
- If you have fresh basil, some leaves would be a lovely addition when the pasta is served.
- Another way to cook the aubergine, would be to ‘roast it’ in the frying pan.
- I like aubergine skin, so I generally just dice the aubergine, fry it in olive oil, and mix it with the pesto.
- This isn’t particularly filling, so you might want to increase the pasta from what you normally would cook, or serve it with bread, or maybe even add some cooked white beans or chickpeas to the aubergine sauce.
You will find many more recipes for pasta dishes here
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