Pasta Paccheri with Eggplants

This Italian first course is prepared with a tomatoes sauce that is traditional of Sicily indeed it is prepared with black olive and eggplant, and a type of pasta called Paccheri that is typical from Campania. Other than eggplant and black olive for the tomatoes sauce you need to add also mozzarella cheese, a lot of parmesan and basil to obtain a more delicious italian first course. This Italian recipe could be also prepared for Christmas lunch and you can easy found it on the table of Italian family from the South of Italy.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 people):
400 g or 3 cups of Pasta type paccheri
1 Eggplant
50 ml or 1/4 cup of extravirgin olive oil
50 g or 2 oz of black olive
700 ml or 3 cups of tomatoes sauce
400 g or 14 oz of Mozzarella cheese
5-6 leaves of basil
150 g 1 cup +2/3 cup of Parmesan

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Vesuvio rosato DOC ( Red Wime)

PREPARATION
Let the salted water boil for pasta, type paccheri. Clean the eggplant and cut it in small cubes. Preheat the extravirgin olive oil and when it's hot fry the cubes of eggplant.



When the eggplant got a golden color remove them from the extravirgin olive oil and put them on a blotting paper to remove the excess of oil. In the meantime prepare the tomatoes sauce, preheat 2-3 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil, cut the black olive in slices and add them to the oil. Let them saute a little bit




and then add the tomatoes sauce.



Stir and let them cook for about 15 minutes, stir the tomatoes sauce time by time. If the water for pasta, type paccheri, boils, cook the paccheri for the time indicated on the packaging.



Cut mozzarella cheese in cubes.



When all the ingredients are ready you can start to put them together. First mix the paccheri pasta with a little bit of tomatoes sauce



then take a large baking pan, place a little bit of tomatoes sauce on them bottom. Add a layer of paccheri pasta,



the fried eggplant, the tomatoes sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan and some leaves of basil.



Then start again with paccheri pasta, tomatoes sauce, eggplant, mozzarella cheese, parmesan and basil.



Bake at 180 C or 356 F for 20 minutes.



Serve warm. BUON APPETITO!

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish

This is the recipe of an Italian first course prepared with cherry tomatoes, eggplant and swordfish. The preparation is easy and quite fast: first you have to prepare a simple chopped of garlic and parsley, then you can prepare the cherry tomatoes, the eggplant and the swordfish cutting them in small square pieces. When the chopped is ready, put it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, add to it the cherry tomatoes then the swordfish and separately fry the pieces of eggplant. When fusilli are ready pour on them all the ingredients and the dish is ready. BUON APPETITO!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
1 Clove of garlic
30 g of Parsley
20 Cherry tomatoes
1 Eggplant
150 g of swordfish in 1 slice
320 g of pasta type fusilli
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Golfo del Tigullio Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for fusilli. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, prepare a chopped of garlic and parsley, add it to the pan and let it cook for 3 – 5 minutes.



In the meantime prepare the cherry tomatoes, the eggplant and the swordfish.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half or in quarter, add them to the pan with the chopped and let them cook for about 10 minutes.



Peel the eggplant and cut it in small square pieces, let them fry in a pan with hot oil and when they are cooked place them in a dish covered with a kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.



Cut also the swordfish in square pieces and when the cherry tomatoes are ready add them to the pan and let them cook for other 5 – 10 minutes.



In the meantime if the salted water boil add the pasta and cook it for the time indicated on the packaging. When pasta is cooked, before drain it, take some spoons of cooking water and add them to the sauce of cherry tomatoes and swordfish.



Now drain the fusilli, add them to the mixture together with the fried pieces of eggplant,



mix all together and serve hot.



This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!

Sicilian Lasagna

This summer my parents spent their holidays in Sicily, in particular in Trapani and during these days they tasted the delicious Italian recipe of “Sicilian Lasagna” (Lasagna alla Siciliana). This traditional Italian recipe is prepared with traditional vegetables of Sicily, the eggplants, and with a tomato sauce of minced veal meat and peas and the addition of ham and sweet Sicilian pecorino cheese. You can prepare it with lasagna bought or you can decide to make home-made lasagna, here I show the easy recipe to prepare the home-made lasagna with the help of a pasta machine but in the case you don’t have it you can also use a simply rolling pin, the result will be the same.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
1 / 2 Onion
200 g of Minced meat of veal
200 g of Peas
1,5 L of Tomato sauce
4 Round Eggplants
200 g of Sweet Pecorino cheese
200 g of ham
150 g of Parmesan
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil for fry the eggplants

INGREDIENTS FOR LASAGNA PASTA
400 g of Flour
4 Eggs
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Santa Margherita di Belice bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the lasagna pasta: put in a bowl the flour, a pinch of salt and the eggs.



Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough until it becomes homogeneous. Let the dough stand for about 20 – 30 minutes so it becomes more soft. After this time start to roll out the dough, you can do this with the help of a rolling pin or more easily with the help of a pasta machine. Here I use the pasta machine.Start roll out the dough from the biggest thickness of the machine then little by little reduce it until you obtain a pastry of about 2 – 3 mm of thickness.





Cut the pastry in rectangular pieces with about dimension of 15 cm x 10 cm.



Now start with the preparation of the sauce for lasagna: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices and let them cook for 3 – 5 minutes in the hot oil to make it tasteful.



When the onion becomes golden remove it from the oil and add the minced meat of veal. Let it cook for 5 - 8 minutes until it becomes slightly golden,



then add fresh peas and continue the cooking for other 5 – 8 minutes.



Now add the tomato sauce and let the all sauce cook for about 30 – 40 minutes.






In the meantime prepare the other ingredients: eggplants, ham and cheese.
Cut the eggplants in slices



and fry them in hot extra virgin olive oil until they become slightly golden.



When they are cooked put them in a dish covered with kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.
Cut the ham in slices and the cheese in small cubes.
Now you can prepare the lasagna: cover the bottom of a rectangular baking pan with the sauce of meat and peas, put over it lasagna,



pour on it the sauce, make a layer with the fried eggplants, another with the slices of ham and the cubes of cheese



and sprinkle with some parmesan, re-put another layer of lasagna pasta and continue in this way until the pan in full.




Bake at 180°C and cook for about 30 minutes until the surface becomes golden.
Serve hot.
This is the result:




BUON APPETTITO!

Penne with Eggplants, Mozzarella and Tomato Sauce

Eggplants, tomato puree, mozzarella, basil, minced meat and Parmesan: these are the main Italian ingredients that I use to prepare this delicious Italian pasta-based first course. Its preparation is easy: first you should prepare the ingredients separately in this way, you should cut the mozzarella, cook the tomato puree with minced meat and basil, cook the pasta type penne and fry the eggplants then you should simply mix all the ingredients together. This Italian recipe seems to suggest another traditional Italian recipe typical of Sicily that is the famous “Pasta alla Norma” but these two recipes are different. In the next recipes I show you the typical preparation also of this.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
350 g of Pasta type penne
800 ml of Tomato puree
2 Eggplants
Oil to fry the eggplants
50 g of Minced meat of veal
1 / 2 of Onion
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 – 4 leafs of basil
150 g of Mozzarella
Salt
Parmesan

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Sambuca di Sicilia bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let the salted water boil for pasta. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices add them to the oil and let it brown on a low flame in order to not burn them.



Then remove it, add the minced meat and let it brown,



add the tomato puree and the basil, mix all together and let it cook for about 30 minutes.



In the meantime prepare the eggplants, clean them, cut them as matches and fry them in a pan with hot oil.




When eggplants are cooked, place them over a sheet of kitchen paper in order to remove the oil in excess




and prepare the mozzarella cutting it in cubes.



When water boils, place in it the pasta and cook it for the time indicating on the packaging, then drain them. Re-place in the same pan a part of pasta, pour on it some sauce, a part of eggplant and a part of mozzarella, sprinkle with some Parmesan and mix all together;




continue in this way until pasta finish and at the end mix all together.
Serve hot. This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplants are vegetables typical of Sicily that you can use to prepare different Italian recipes, Eggplant Parmesan is one of these that you can cook in many way. The following recipe is made with sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella. The use of mozzarella to cook Eggplant Parmesan is typical of Campania, a region in the southern part of Italy; instead in Emilia Romagna Eggplant Parmesan is prepared only with sauce and Parmesan. Furthermore in this recipe the slices of eggplant are fried but if you prefer you can also roasted them and then continue like it is explained here. This is a simple and good second course, believe me!








INGREDIENTS (for 6 people)
5 Eggplants
600 g of Tomato puree
5 Leafs of basil
1 / 2 of Onion
200 g of Flour
3 Eggs
200 g of Parmesan
Salt
Pepper
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil for the sauce
Extra virgin olive oil to fry
300 g of Mozzarella cut into slices

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hours

COOKING TIME: 40 – 50 minutes

WINE: Alcamo DOC (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Wash and dry the eggplants, peel them and cut into slices 1 cm thick lengthwise. Sprinkle the slices of eggplants with salt and place them in a dish to drain for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime you can start to prepare the sauce: in a pan heat 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, add the chopped onion and let it brown. Then add the tomato puree, the leafs of basil, some salt and pepper and let simmer for about 30 – 35 minutes.

Squeeze the slices of eggplants and flour them.

In a dish prepare the beaten eggs with the Parmesan, the salt and the pepper and dip each side of the slices of eggplants in it.

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a pan and fry the eggplants until they golden brown on the both sides, then drain on a kitchen paper.

In a baking pan spread some sauce in the bottom, then make a layer with the fried eggplants, another with the slices of mozzarella, sprinkle with the Parmesan and cover with the sauce. Continue in this way until the baking pan is full. When the baking pan is full sprinkle with Parmesan.

Preheat the oven to 180 – 200 °C and bake for about 30 – 40 minutes or until the surface of the eggplants become golden.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!