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fileja con pesto di melanzane e olive

fileja with aubergine pesto and olives

It’s amusing (at least for me) to find so many un-illustrated recipes for aubergine pesto in cookbooks. The tragedy is that whilst pesto made from melanzane can be delicious, it has all the looks of freshly mixed concrete. So many writers simply choose to show the ingredients they’ve used or shots of Italy instead! The way I’ve got around the problem here is to dress the pasta with the pesto but also throw cubed, fried melanzane in as you combine pasta and pesto.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)

  • slice / salt the aubergines (45-60 mins)

  • prepare the other ingredients

  • crush the pistacchio nuts

  • rinse and dry aubergines

  • chop and cook aubergines

  • allow the aubergines to cool

  • make the pesto in a blender

  •  boil and cook the pasta

  • combine pesto and pasta

  • add held-back aubergines

fileja with aubergine pesto and olives

INGREDIENTS

FOR FOUR PEOPLE

  • 1kg (2.2 lb) melanzane

  • 50g (1.8 oz)  flaked almonds

  • 50g (1.8 oz) pinoli approx

  • 180g (6 oz) pecorino 

  • pinch fresh thyme leaves

  • EVO

  • 2 large handfuls crushed pistacchio nuts

  • handful of kalamata olives


PASTA

400g (14 oz) dry fileja

/ casarecce


MANTECATURA (?)

none

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METHOD

The only tips I have for you for the preparation of the meanzane are to cut them into discs appric 8mm thick, salt them, and arrange them, flat, into a pyramid shape on a plate so that the juice can trickle out of them for 45mins to an hour. Cover them with cling film while they’re doing this. After a while, drain and throw away the juice, rinse the discs thoroughy and pat them dry with kitchen towels. Fry them in batches with minimal oil in a non-stick pan, so that they’re lightly golden brown. Don’t burn them. Cut them into small pieces and hold back two large handfuls from the amount you use to blend into the pesto.


Allow the melanzane to cool until you move on to making the pesto. Pulse-blend all the ingredients bit by bit until you get the balance of flavours you like. You can keep the pesto chilled in a fridge for up to a couple of days, but make sure it’s at room temperature before you cook with it. Boil and cook your pasta then combine the pesto and pasta using a little cooking water, in the pre-warmed past pan. 

When it comes to combining the pasta with the sauce, we’re not going for a big starchy ‘cremima’ effect here, just pasta that’s well dressed and coated with the pesto. Serve immediately with a few crushed pistacchio nuts, black olives, black pepper and pecorino.

NUTRITION per serving

  • KCAL: we're working on it!

  • Fat (g): TBC

  • Sat Fat (g): TBC

  • Carb (g): TBC

  • Sug (g): TBC

  • Fibre(g): TBC

  • Prot (g): TBC

  • Salt (g): TBC

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