Feeds 6
Prep 10 mins
Cooking Time 40 mins
Ingredients
Ingredients
1 medium eggplant
120g baby Boccincini
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
500g Italian pork and fennel sausages
700g bottle of tomato passata
2 large cloves of garlic
2 stalks of fresh bunch
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli
5-6 tablespoons of olive oil
500g rigatoni pasta
Salt
Method
- Dice the eggplant, place it in a colander and lightly salt it. Set this aside and wait 10 minutes.
- Rinse the eggplant and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Decase the sausage (removing the skins) into bite size pieces.
- Heat a large pan on medium high heat and add the olive oil. You need enough to shallow fry the eggplant.
- Add the whole cloves of garlic and the eggplant. Season with salt.
- Allow the eggplant to cook until golden and softened on the other side. Approximately 6-7 minutes
- Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the whole cloves of garlic and the eggplant into a bowl. Leave the remaining oil in the pan.
- Turn the heat to high and add in the pork to the fry pan. Allow it to cook until golden on both sides. Return the eggplant and add 4-5 basil leaves to the pan, along with the bottle of tomato passata sauce. Season well with salt and add in the chilli.
- Bring to the boil then lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, fill a large pot of water and generously salt. Bring to the boil and cook the rigatoni as per the cooking instructions. Cook al dente (still with a little bit of bite).
- Using the slotted spoon, transfer the pasta directly into the frypan with the sauce and make sure some of the starchy pasta water is added (this helps the sauce stick to the pasta).
- Add in the bocconcini and grated Parmesan, mix well and turn off the heat.
- Serve immediately and add an extra dash of chilli oil to serve with some fresh basil leaves.
