Thursday, August 13, 2015

Roasted Aubergines with Pesto, Tomatoes and Cheese


I have a love-hate relationship with summer gluts - on the one hand, HOMEGROWN PRODUCE, on the other hand - so-many-courgettes-aubergines-tomatoes-aaaaaaargh.


There are only so many ratatouilles anyone can tolerate in a single season. Of course, there was the year I put courgettes into every possible kind of cake, including chocolate.


This dish makes for a rather tasty summer lunch, served on its own, or could bulk up a dinner, if served with cous-cous or flatbread, and maybe a couple of lamb kebabs.


Ingredients: (per person)
1 medium, or 2 dwarf, aubergines
2 to 4 cherry tomatoes
4 tsp pesto
2 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt
20g cheese (I used mature cheddar, but parmesan, gruyere or even mozzarella would all work)
basil leaves to garnish.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C Cut the aubergine in half lengthwise - don't bother removing the green hat.
2. Criss-cross the white aubergine flesh, taking care not to cut through the purple skin.
3. Mix the pesto, olive oil and salt together, then spread the mixture equally over the cut surface of each of the aubergine halves
4. Put the aubergine halves into a roasting tin, and roast for around 20 minutes, until the flesh is soft (the pesto will darken in colour)
5. Thinly slice the tomatoes, and grate or slice the cheese.
6. Top each aubergine with slices of tomato and a sprinkling of cheese.
7. Return to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden (mine never reached this stage due to an inconvenient power cut.)
8. Garnish with basil leaves and serve.

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare, which I am hosting this week!
CookBlogShare

8 comments:

Kirsty Hijacked By Twins said...

I love aubergines and love finding new ways to use them. These look delicious x #CookBlogShare

Beckie said...

Thanks you!

A Strong Coffee said...

Now this might get my husband eating more veg!

Beckie said...

Cheese is a powerful incentive... ;-)

Steph @MisplacedBrit said...

EXACTLY the kind of dish I want to find!
These sound fantastic, and I'll be making them right away!!
Absolutely love the inspiration, I've never done anything like this with aubergine... An alternative to the ratatouille is a delicious roasted summer vegetable salad, with feta and walnuts that we ate in Sydney some years ago :-)
That too is delicious if you fancy an alternative!

http://misplacedbrit.com/recipes/roasted-vegetable-feta-walnut-salad-with-sun-dried-tomato-pesto/

Beckie said...

Always love another recipe to use up the garden abundance, thank you!

A Green and Rosie Life said...

Perfect timing - I have a glut of aubergine and tomatoes and have been looking for new recipes - do you reckon this is freezable? #CookBlogShare

Beckie said...

I don't know! A quick google search seems to indicate that aubergine is freezable if you intend to cook it afterwards, so I suppose they could be partly assembled and then frozen? Do let me know if you succeed!