Gluten free with the 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 tweaked 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, I now believe should, include a
jar of pesto.
Before
going any further, not all jars of pesto are created equal. Some
contain a ghastly green puree, 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 months.
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, which 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 had
a look online and even the most hysterical of ‘health-food’ sites
seemed pretty chilled about lactic and ascorbic acid. 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!
Serves
2
Ingredients
1
large or 2 small aubergine
olive
oil
salt
4
tbsp pesto
Pecorino
cheese or "Parmegan"
pasta
spirals or similar
6
cherry tomatoes
black pepper
- 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 mins. Or cook it in the pressure cooker until it’s tender, cut it in half 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, but I don’t bother. 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.
- Pour the pesto over the aubergine and mix it all up. Add olive oil 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 aubergines so that you have a saucy consistency.
- Mix in the tomatoes. Grind plenty of black pepper over it.
- Tip in the drained 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.
- I like aubergine skin, so I generally just dice the aubergine 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.