Aubergine, Tomato and Chilli Pasta with Whipped Ricotta

and two ideas for serving it!

Because sometimes at the end of a long day, only a gorgeous bowl of pasta will do. And this chilli, aubergine and tomato pasta with whipped ricotta is so incredibly good. Simple enough for the every day but delicious enough to serve when you have friends coming over too.

Do not be intimated by the way I’ve presented it above: a) it’s very easy to do, you just need a piping bag, or a plastic sandwich bag you can cut the corner off and b) you could serve it like this which is equally as beautiful and delicious.

I will say there is something nice about the pasta being filled with the silky ricotta as they kind of burst in your mouth in a very delicious way, but in reality if you manage to get a little bit of everything on your fork, you’re going to really enjoy this either way.

This sauce is so good, you can blitz it until it’s silky smooth like I did here, but I actually also do love it equally with a bit of chunk to it too. I think it depends on what pasta shape you want to use and also how you’re feeling. Because I know there are days when the extra step of having to blend something will just be one too many things that are being asked of me and the thought of more washing up fills me with dread. For those days, absolutely do not feel the need to blend it. We cook the aubergines right down until they are jammy and soft. A slightly chunkier unblended sauce would work really well with a tube pasta like penne, rigatoni, macaroni or paccheri. Or a tagliatelle or pappardelle. Whereas when you blend it you might want to opt for something twisty like fusilli, trofie, strozzapreti, caserecce and gemelli as the sauce will cling to the twist. Or spaghetti or linguine.

I love this calamarata pasta shape, you can get it online fairly easily and I think it’s fun. I’m a very strange sort of person who likes to collect unusual or interesting pasta shapes which is great until it comes time to eat it at which point I feel excitement at finally getting to eat it and a little sad it will no longer be in my pasta collection. This recipe was worthy of my calamarata. You can also find a version when it’s been dyed with squid ink which is very dramatic and delicious.

This whipped ricotta is a delight and a good one to know about as it’s excellent on toast. Top with smoked salmon, a squeeze of lemon and some dill or go the other direction and drizzle with warmed blackcurrants. And it’s very good dolloped on a bowl of pasta. Whipping it makes it go so silky and smooth. Whilst I am a big ricotta fan, if I were to criticise it and I’m loathe to do so as it’s pretty much perfect, my only comment would be about the texture which can be a little grainy. The solution? Whip it with a drizzle of olive oil. The result is silky smooth and creamy.

Let’s talk about timings. Ideally the sauce is going to take about 20 minutes as you want to give the aubergine some time to really cook down and get jammy, so get the aubergine on first. Then at the point you add the tomatoes to the aubergine, I would get the pasta on to cook. Remember, as always, to save some of the pasta cooking water as you can use that to finish the sauce. And always slightly under cook the pasta so that it finishes cooking as you toss it all together - otherwise you risk it over cooking.

Another tip for really good pasta that I want to leave you with before we get in to today’s recipe is this. Don’t cook your pasta in too much water. We all know the importance of salting our water when cooking pasta but I think too many people use too much water. You don’t need a huge amount - obviously you want the pasta covered but beyond that it’s a waste as you water down the starchiness you get with the pasta and that water is what is going to make our sauce truly delicious.