#ajikko

(Note: I made the mistake of not searing the eggplant before rolling because I was too lazy to wash another pan because it wasn’t so clear in the manga, and I only found out that he seared the eggplant when I watched the anime to make the gifs.) 

Ingredients (for 2)

1 carrot, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 small yellow onion, diced

Ground Meat (I used beef) 250g

5 fresh shiitake mushrooms, diced

1 round eggplant

1 can (350ml) tomato puree

Spaghetti (follow packet instructions for a 2-people portion)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Method

1. Cut off the eggplant cap and slice the thickest part of it into thin slices. It should be so thin until you can hold it up and say: “But soft, what light through yonder eggplant breaks?”

2. Dice the remaining eggplant.

3. Heat some oil in a large pan and stir-fry the mirepoix (carrot, onion, celery) until the onion is transparent.

4. Add in the meat and stir until cooked.

5. Add in the mushrooms and diced eggplant into the pan, and stir until semi-cooked.

6. Pour the tomato puree into the pan, mix well, and set to simmer on low heat for about 5 mins. If it gets too thick, add a quarter cup (50ml) of water/stock at a time and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

7. In a separate pan (if you are not lazy like me), heat some oil and lightly pan fry the eggplant slices until it starts to get soft.

8. Break the spaghetti into half, and wrap up with the semi-cooked eggplant slices. I used toothpicks to ensure that they didn’t unravel.

9. Heat up a big pot of water and put the wrapped spaghetti into it. Boil until cooked. Now this is the slightly tricky part - the outside spaghetti will end up being softer than the strands on the inside. Unless you really like uncooked spaghetti, you can extract the most inner strand of spaghetti from the roll to conduct a taste test.

10. Drain the rolls and place a few on a plate, and cover them with the meat sauce.

11. Attempt to stuff each roll into your mouth - whole. (Not really, please be careful not to choke…)

Frankly, the next time I make eggplant spaghetti I’ll just try to dice the whole thing in. The sauce was great but I don’t think the rolls were worth the effort. :P

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