Let’s forget about the vegetarian thing for one time. Spaghetti with golden bacon, melting aubergine with a rich tomato sauce, c’mon who can say no?
The Basic Tomato Sauce Spaghetti with Aubergine I cooked before was a vegetarian version without bacon. And that tomato sauce was relatively simple, using only canned and fresh tomatoes.
This time, by adding bacon and onions, overall is more fragrant and fatty. And I also modified the tomato sauce – using tomato passata, fresh tomatoes and tomato paste for a richer flavour.
Star of the Spaghetti – Melting Aubergine
This spaghetti won’t shine without the perfectly fried aubergine.
It’s VERY EASY! Just remember to season the aubergine with a generous pinch of salt and pepper, then fry. Adding salt not only imparts flavour, but also helps to extract the moisture from the aubergine, making it easier to achieve a golden brown effect.
The aubergine was slightly charred and almost melting in the mouth. Super delicious!
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 160 g spaghetti
- 40 g bacon, cut into small pieces
- ½ (approx. 220 g) aubergine, cut into 1 cm thickness
- 6 sweet cherry tomatoes, halved
- 130 g tomato passata
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 dried chilli
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- ¼ tsp sugar
- handful of fresh parsley, chopped
How to Make Melting Aubergine and Bacon Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce
- Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan, sauté the aubergine with a pinch of salt and pepper until lightly golden and half cooked through. Then set aside.
- Meanwhile, cook pasta in salted water as per package instructions.
- Again, heat some more oil in the same pan, gently fry the onions, garlic and chilli until fragrant. After the onions turned translucent, also add bacon to fry.
- Add the cherry tomatoes, tomato passata, tomato paste and a ladleful of pasta cooking water (I used approx. 130 ml) , stir well. I pressed the tomatoes to let the juice release to the sauce. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Bring the sauce to a simmer.
- Return the aubergines and cooked pasta to the pan. Give everything a nice stir. You may want to add some more olive oil and salt if needed. Garnish with parsley and freshly grounded black pepper.
