Crispy panko coated aubergine with one pan tomato orzo served with pesto butter and burrata

A vegetarian dish everyone will enjoy!

This newsletter is dedicated to easy and achievable weeknight recipes because really those are the ones I think we all need the most. And I love coming up with these recipes. It’s so easy to resort to a bowl of pasta, and don’t get me wrong I love pasta, and I have shared and will continue to share pasta recipes with you on here but we also don’t necessarily want pasta every night. So what else can we cook that’s easy and delicious? That’s the question I’m always trying to answer with these recipes.

I love a one pan dish where you let the oven do the hard work, and I love using as few ingredients and pans as possible. I’m always trying to think of ways to make your life easier in the kitchen. But! Sometimes a dish is so delicious it warrants a little more work and I hope you trust me enough by know to now that if I tell you something is worth the effort, it is. Which brings me to today’s recipe.

Crispy panko coated aubergine with one pan tomato orzo served with pesto butter and burrata.

That’s not to say this is a difficult dish by any means. Is this a little more complicated than a simple bowl of pasta? Yes, yes it is. There are a few steps between you and this very delicious supper but I wouldn’t share it with you if it wasn’t worth it. And I’ve got several tips to make this a 30 minute meal if you want it to be. But you can of course also take your time with it. Make this the first time and you’ll be reading the recipe and checking the steps. But once you’ve made it and know what you’re doing, you will be knocking this together without really thinking about it.

The star of the show is the crispy aubergine which is so incredibly good. It’s a veggie version of the crunchy chicken you all loved so much a few weeks ago and it works so well. The inside is soft and melting which tastes so good contrasted with the crispy crunchy panko coating. You could serve this with a simple tomato sauce, with or without rice, or serve on top of your favourite pasta, or in a sandwich. Really so good in so many ways. The only thing about this recipe is that you do have to cook the aubergine before it gets fried. But you have options when it comes to cooking your aubergine.

You can go old school and do it on the burner on your hob - nothing will make you feel more cheffy than scorching an aubergine until it’s black and charred straight in the flames. But this is quite hands on method - it takes about 20 minutes which is manageable but you do have to babysit it. You can also roast it simply in the oven - this takes a bit longer (about 45 minutes) but you can just leave it to do its thing while you go about your evening. But what I like to do is to whack them under a very hot grill - you place the rack as close as you can to the grill and then char them for 10 minutes on each side. I also use small aubergines to cut the cooking time down - a very large aubergine will take longer but you can get smaller, younger aubergine and they cook faster so after 20 minutes under the grill they are done.

Another way to make this a very speedy weeknight supper is that you could roast the aubergine the day before - just pop them in the oven when you’re cooking supper. Leave them in a a bowl covered with clingfilm and then the next night they are waiting for you and are ready to go! So you see, you have options!

While the aubergine are doing their thing in the oven, you can get your breadcrumbing station ready and crack on with the tomato orzo. Meaning that everything is ready to go by the time you get round to frying your aubergine.

The combination of crispy aubergine with creamy tomato orzo is so good. Add to that a little pesto and burrata? Oh my goodness, it’s such a good combo. You can buy store bought pesto to save a step or make your own, entirely up to you. I love mixing the pesto with a little butter for a little extra indulgence which obviously I highly recommend but it is optional. This is such a good dish. If you’ve got vegetarians coming for supper, make them this and it will knock their socks off!

I’ve written this recipe in sections where I tell you how to make each element as I thought that might be the most helpful way of doing it rather than telling you what to do when. But when I’m cooking this, I get the aubergine under the grill and then I get everything ready for the bread crumbing stage so that’s all organised and ready to go. Then I make the orzo, which is quite happy to sit once it has finished cooking. So I get it made and then turn off the heat and leave the lid on. Then it’s ready and waiting to be scooped into plates and topped with the crispy aubergine. That’s how I would make it but do what works for you!

Serves 2