AP – This recipe for her cookbook Healthy Made Simple has become Ella Mills’ go-to when she’s cooking for friends and family.
She said it’s always a hit, and “you get maximum flavour for minimal effort.”
She pops ingredients into a mini chopper and blitzes them so they’re finely chopped and coat the spaghetti in a ragu-style sauce.
SPICY SUN-DRIED TOMATO AND EGGPLANT RAGU
Ingredients
– 100g walnuts, finely chopped
– One tablespoon olive oil
– One onion, blitzed in a mini chopper or very finely chopped
– Two eggplant, blitzed in a mini chopper or very finely chopped
– Two bunches of flat-leaf parsley
– Four servings of pasta; spaghetti or tagliolini
– sea salt and pepper
For the paste
– Four garlic cloves
– Two tablespoons harissa
– One red chilli
– Juice of one lemon
– One jar sun-dried tomatoes
Chef’s Note: The eggplant really needs to be cut into one centimetre pieces or smaller, or else it won’t cook quickly enough and you won’t get the same flavours and textures.
DIRECTIONS
Place a frying pan on a high heat and add the walnuts. Toast for about three minutes, tossing them a couple of times, then pour them into a small bowl and place to one side.
Using the same pan, start the ragu. Pour in the olive oil and warm it over a medium heat, then add the onion and eggplant with some salt and cook for five minutes, until they are starting to soften.
While they cook, make the paste. Put the garlic, harissa, chili, sun-dried tomatoes plus three tablespoons of olive oil from their jar, and the lemon juice into a mini chopper or food processor and blitz until they form a thick, chunky paste.
If you don’t have a processor you can finely chop everything and stir it together.
Add the sun-dried tomato mix to the eggplant and cook everything together on a low heat for about 10 minutes, until the veg is tender and the sauce is flavoursome.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling salted water, following the instructions on the pack.
Once the pasta is cooked, add 150 millilitres of the pasta water to the ragu, and stir until you have a lovely glossy sauce.
Stir in the drained pasta, walnuts and parsley, and cook everything together for a minute or so. Season to taste and serve with lots of pepper.
