Anatolian pasta
This recipe uses a lot of ingredients that I hold dear: pasta, yogurt, chillies and garlic. The pasta itself is Greek and is like tubular spaghetti. The yogurty chilli sauce is indebted to the craze for Turkish stuffed manti and also the Nigella figure-headed turkish eggs phenomenon. Perhaps the magic comes from the chilli flakes which are Syrian and called Pul biber? Anyway, it’s basically loads of great things.
It feels both summery and a bit exotic. It’s an easy and hugely gratifying weekday lunch. This is enough for just me. So it serves a greedy 1.
1 aubergine, diced
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a handful of parsley
90g greek macaroni, failing that, spaghetti or macaroni
2 tbsp strained greek yogurt
1 heaped tsp pul biber chilli flakes
Preheat the oven to 180c. In a roasting tray combine the aubergine, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt and olive oil. Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Everything should be soft, a little caramelised and and well cooked through. There’s no mileage in undercooked aubergines. Remove from the oven. If you can see the garlic cloves, mash them up so that the flavour permeates the whole dish.
Meanwhile, chop a good handful of parsley. Heat a medium pan filled with salted water until it reaches a rumbling boil. Now cook the pasta until done (a bit more than al dente in this case). Strain the pasta, throw in the roasted garlicky veg and add the chopped parsley. Serve with yogurt on the top and a generous spoon of the lemony chilli flakes. You can add more olive oil and salt if you want.
