Pasta `ncasciata
Sicilian stuffing with eggplant and pasta.
Preparation steps
- Wash the aubergines, remove the upper hard part, you can peel them, and you don't have to, cut them into slices, add salt and let them stand for about 45 minutes to let the water run. Squeeze the liquid with your hands, dry them a little on kitchen paper and fry in oil for 1-2 minutes.
- Fry the coarsely chopped garlic in a little olive oil, take it out, add the minced meat and sauté it. Add the tomatoes and simmer over low heat for about 50 minutes. Finally add the finely chopped herbs. If you use fresh tomatoes, cut the shrimp a little on one side, blanch it in boiling water, cool, peel and clean from the seeds and cut into cubes.
- Cook the pasta al dente. Grate the cheese, cut the eggs into slices, and the prosciutto or ham into cubes. Some recipes don't mention ham, so I think it can do without it, but it's much finer with. Mix the macaroni and the finished sauce. Let it be creamy.
- Prepare a kuglof mold or a cake tin or round ceramic dish, grease it with olive oil and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Coat the mold along the bottom and sides with the roasted eggplants. Arrange a row of macaroni and sauce on the aubergines, serve on top, a little egg, sprinkle with chopped prosciutto and cheese. You will also have eggplants left, so serve them until you have used up all the material. Arrange a row of eggplants on top to close the mold and sprinkle with cheese.
- Bake the puff pastry at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Leave it in the mold for ten minutes to cool down a bit, turn it upside down on a tray or on a plate if you had small molds, one for each person. If you find it complicated to wrap in eggplant, you can freely fold it like moussaka, but then you will not get a stuffing that looks like a stake and you do not have to turn it upside down. It is best to use maccheroni or bucatini because they are not large in volume when cooked, and they have a hole, which is important in this recipe for the sauce to go inside. I used a penne which didn't turn out to be the best bass because of that volume.
