ROASTED AUBERGINE & GOAT'S CHEESE PASTA

My daughter Arabella isn't a fussy eater but she detests aubergines - I just don't get it as I absolutely love them! Anyway as she was at her father's for the weekend, I decided it would be the perfect time to cook this pasta recipe. I had cooked it previously about 5 years ago so it was definitely time to give it another go. It took about 35 minutes and was really easy.

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 medium aubergine, cut into wedges
1 red onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 leaves of fresh basil shredded, plus a few whole leaves for garnishing
150g pasta such as penne or fusilli
100g goat's cheese
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 220 C / gas mark 7.

Chop the aubergine, onion and garlic and shred the basil. Arrange the aubergine and onion in a small roasting tin. Scatter over the garlic, basil and olive oil and season. Roast for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring once or twice until tender and charred.

While the vegetables are cooking, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet's instructions - mine took 8 minutes.

Drain and mix together with the roasted vegetables, goat's cheese and toasted pine nuts. I actually forgot to toast the pine nuts but it didn't matter. Normally I would dry fry them for 3-4 minutes.

Serve immediately with some basil leaves and more seasoning if you desire.

I can't believe that I haven't cooked this recipe for 5 years! It is so delicious and so simple to make plus to you don't need to many ingredients. A perfect midweek supper idea….I just need to now convince Arabella she likes aubergines too, luckily she is already sold on the goat's cheese! I bet the goat's cheese, pine nuts, onion, aubergine and basil would make a great pizza topping as well!