Italian pasta casserole with eggplant and tomatoes

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 eggplant(s)
• e.g. olive oil for frying
• 200 g Pecorino, alternatively mountain cheese or Emmental, nutty
• 1 liter of water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 100g linguine
• 300 g water
• 6 g chicken stock powder
• 6 small onions, red
• 2 medium-sized garlic cloves
• 6 m.-large tomato(s)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 50 g tomato juice
• 2 tbsp Italian herbs, frozen or dried
• 2 g chicken broth powder
• 1 tsp, levelled pepper, black
• 100 g water (pasta water)
• 2 olives, black, pitted, from the jar

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

A spicy and juicy side dish for meat dishes. Recipe from Tuscany, Italy.

Mix the ingredients for the brine thoroughly. Wash the eggplants, trim both ends, and cut crosswise into approximately 5 mm thick slices. Add them to the brine, weigh them down with a plate, and let them soak for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Rinse thoroughly with running water and place on a clean tea towel to dry, then cover with a second tea towel. After 15 minutes, fry in hot olive oil on both sides until light brown and drain on kitchen paper. Coarsely grate the pecorino. Halve the olives lengthwise. For the sauce, trim both ends of the onions and garlic cloves, peel them, and chop them into small pieces. Wash the tomatoes, remove the stems, skin them, quarter them lengthwise, and discard the green core and seeds. For two tomatoes, roughly chop the quarters and keep them separate. Mix the ingredients for the sauce, from tomato paste to pepper, until smooth. Bring the pasta water to a boil. Dissolve the chicken stock in it. Add the linguine and cook al dente according to the package instructions (do not let it get too soft, as it will be cooked later). Strain and reserve the pasta water for the sauce. Measure it and stir it into the sauce. Reserve the rest of the broth until the end. Spread the linguine on a clean tea towel. For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onions and garlic, and fry until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Deglaze with the sauce and the measured pasta water, stirring in the mozzarella a tablespoon at a time. Season with salt and pepper. Add the remaining tomato quarters and simmer with the lid on for 3 minutes. The sauce should be thin; thin with the remaining pasta broth if necessary. Grease a medium-sized baking dish with olive oil and cover the bottom with a little of the sauce. Add half of the pasta and sprinkle with about 1/3 of the pecorino cheese. Then drizzle with 1/3 of the sauce. Add the fried eggplant as the next layer and sprinkle with 1/3 of the pecorino. Remove the tomato quarters from the sauce, arrange them on top, and arrange the remaining pasta on top. Cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the remaining pecorino. Garnish with the olive halves and finish baking in the oven at 180°C for 40 minutes. Serve hot in the casserole dish.