Aubergines, eggplant, brinjals, whatever you want to call them, I have to think of more ways to prepare them. Our aubergine plant is going crazy. We've probably harvested close to twenty, there's six more on the bush almost ready to harvest, and a whole lot of flowers. Fried aubergines is just not cutting it anymore. This is what lead to the wonderful swearword: INCACIATA.
I know it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter, but I promise you, this is a wonderful dish to make ahead for the next night. We would've had this on Tuesday night (the 21st), but I overestimated the amount of pasta needed, meaning we had the leftover pasta for dinner on Tuesday, and the incaciata for dinner yesterday. I promise you, it isn't as complicated as it sounds.
Up until this weekend, when I found the recipe, I've never even heard of this dish. I began researching aubergine dishes to vary what we can do with them. I guess I can admit that the blog might be buzzing with a few aubergine recipes over the coming weeks, at least as long as the dishes come out pretty enough for photos.
Incaciata, as far as I've been able to figure out, means any form of baked dish that is wrapped in
aubergine. I tried the most basic form, which is a baked pasta, using Penne. The original recipe called for Ziti pasta, but I have no idea where I might find that in Cape Town, so I decided to go with good old faithful Penne.
I don't know if there are any limitations on what filling can be used, but I doubt there is. What I ended up making (
recipe here) was a sauce using tomato puree and fried onions & garlic. I added meat to that (once again, I doubt there's a limitation on what kind, but I was lazy so used Pizza Topping), some fresh basil (you guessed it, from our garden) and sliced olives, of which we were given a huge tin and of which 3/4 of that huge tin has now been frozen.
To this saucey, meatey mixture I added the cooked penne. Now, to backtrack a bit, the aubergines still have to be fried, to soften them, but I found only the side used on the outside needs to grill to give it colour. I did fry both sides, but the "back" side was only slightly coloured. After lining the base and sides of a spring tin, having the sides drape over the outside, I layered the pasta with 3 different cheeses. On the bottom (which becomes the top) I layered Parmesan, in the middle was a basil cheddar, and on the top was normal cheddar. The top is covered with aubergine as well and the draping sides folded back to end up with a compact "cake".
A few other filling ideas I have are chicken al fredo (can you imagine that creamy chicken and bacon mixture with pasta in this dish), and for vegetarians, even something like a chickpea & herb pasta. All of these are just ideas for now, but I can assure you this isn't the last time I'll be making this dish. With a side salad you could easily feed 6-8 people from this one batch. Also, use the biggest aubergines you can find, as I used 2 of the huge ones we grow. Normal shop aubergines will probably require 3 or 4.
I know it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter, but I promise you, this is a wonderful dish to make ahead for the next night. We would've had this on Tuesday night (the 21st), but I overestimated the amount of pasta needed, meaning we had the leftover pasta for dinner on Tuesday, and the incaciata for dinner yesterday. I promise you, it isn't as complicated as it sounds.
I don't know if there are any limitations on what filling can be used, but I doubt there is. What I ended up making (recipe here) was a sauce using tomato puree and fried onions & garlic. I added meat to that (once again, I doubt there's a limitation on what kind, but I was lazy so used Pizza Topping), some fresh basil (you guessed it, from our garden) and sliced olives, of which we were given a huge tin and of which 3/4 of that huge tin has now been frozen.
Yummy!! Cannot believe that I never ate egg plant until you prepared it. All the other dishes ever made for me were yuck
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