Regular readers will remember that I recently attempted to have aubergines and my taste buds make friends after a lifetime of estrangement.

I did this by following a few recipes and doing lots of reading, and it worked. I actually kinda like aubergine now. So much so that I wanted to try coming up with a recipe myself.

If you need a 15 minute meal or a one pot wonder, I’m really sorry buddy but you’ve landed on the wrong recipe, this is kinda long winded.

But guys, I would not be publishing this if it wasn’t insanely delicious, so if you’ve got a little time and can be arsed with using more than one pan to cook your dinner today, you will not be disappointed with this dish.

Also, in my defence, it does only have 5 ingredients. That’s a winner, right?

I think it’s down to the amount of garlic I used – like 4 cloves for one serving, don’t be afraid. Or the fact that mascarpone is technically a dessert thing so its creaminess feels more luxurious. Or perhaps its because roasted aubergines and red peppers are so sweet and delicious.

Whatever it is, this works. It works so good.

This recipe serves one because.. I’m a loner. But you can totally scale it up, you just might wanna fry the aubergine in batches.  Let’s get into it.

Oh, wait, I just want to make one last thing clear. This is ridiculously tasty because I used white, run of the mill spaghetti. It will not, I repeat will not taste as good if you use courgetti or brown rice pasta or whatever. But I get it if that’s what you need to do, you do you baby.

Serves 1

1/2 an aubergine
1/2 a tub of mascarpone (so just over 100g)
1 red pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
100g spaghetti

more olive oil than you might initially suspect (said from experience)

1. Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 4 (conversions here)
2. Cut your aubergine into half moon shapes (as pictured above). Heat a really good glug of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan (be prepared to potentially need to add more in a bit, aubergines are like bloody sponges) on a high heat. Fry the aubergines without moving them about too much for three minutes on one side, and two minutes on the other. You’re looking for a good and proper golden brown.
3. Get them straight out of that pan and into a roasting dish, oil and all. Add a little salt, give them a quick stir then set aside for a second.
4. Chop your pepper into roughly four slices, chuck them in a little roasting dish and oil/salt em up.
5. Get the peppers and the aubergine into the top shelf of the oven and cook for about 40 minutes. After this time, take out the aubergine (get it out of that oil and onto kitchen paper ASAP) and whack the heat up to full (I’m talking gas 8/9) on those peppers for another 10 minutes so that they get maximum sweet deliciousness.
6. Once all your roasting is done, just chill for a sec while you wait for the peppers to cool. Then slice em up (really roughly) and set aside. You can peel them if you want but I really can’t be bothered, I like the flavour and I don’t find the skins texturally displeasing..
7. Cook the spaghetti according to pack instructions.
8. Slice your garlic finely-ish but don’t mince it, you want visible slices, heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and gently brown it.
9. Once you’ve got a nice amount of colour going on, throw in the mascarpone and your roasted veggies and just a little bit (maybe a couple tablespoons) of the pasta water.
10. You want to cook until the mascarpone has melted and loosened, no longer. Then take it off the heat and add the drained pasta once its done. Et voila.

Serve it to yourself, enjoy it, pat yourself on the back, you did a great job.

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