Tagliatelle with Eggplant Cream, Tomatoes and Basil


There are some things about traveling that gives me a wake up call in running to my kitchen as soon as I get back home. When there is a dish that I tried and loved so much that has to be replicated before the flavors completely disappear from my memory. It will never be exactly the same as the original one but at least the the flavors are there and the taste is similar and if I am lucky, almost the same.


When I was in the medieval town of Albenga in Liguria at the beginning of summer along with my family, we chanced upon a marvelous restaurant by accident. It's off the beaten track and serves good quality food and wine. We would never have found it on our own of not for the shop owner who recommended to us where to eat. We were rushing to buy more clothes for our extended stay in Liguria before the shops closed and lunch was getting late for our complaining hungry kids. We didn't have the time to search and a quick walk to the restaurant was all we needed. And it had been a jackpot!

The food was great from appetizer to dessert but one plate that stood out was my husband's pasta. He was so happy with it and when I tried it, I had to agree that indeed, it was very good. It was not so hard to understand how it was done (I think) because the ingredients are minimal and fresh. The pasta, trofie was used actually which is the local one, was mixed with pesto made of eggplants, tomatoes and fresh basil. And a lot of Ligurian extra virgin olive oil which gave the final touch.


I made this pasta dish with minimal fresh ingredients. If you pay attention to the quality of the ingredients that you are going to use, then you can have a delicious pasta dish. Just choose the ripest, sweetest and freshest tomatoes, eggplants and basil then drizzle it with good quality extra virgin olive oil. These are the only 4 main ingredients and you will taste each and one of them so they have to be good.

You can get the Tagliatelle with Eggplant Cream, Tomatoes and Basil recipe at She Knows. You can also see my other recipes in my Profile Page there. Have a good week!

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