Meatball and Eggplant Tagliatelle #LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen

A hearty pasta dish with eggplant and meatballs. Let's get started. The first thing is the eggplant. Nice firm eggplant. You wash it first and then I like to strip peel it just like that. I like to leave a little bit of the skin on and in little cubes. Let's cut half. Let's cut again. Okay so choose a nice big pan where everything will fit. The sauce, the meatballs, the eggplant. Let's throw them in. Then you want them nice and chunky because, you know, they'll cook. You don't want them to disappear in the sauce. Just a little bit of salt. I have some garlic in here. I have some crushed tomatoes. I'm going to make a little hot spot. You know, I like to do those. And what that means is that I make in one corner. I clear everything out, whatever I'm cooking. And I'm going to add the next ingredient, this being garlic, in this hot spot. That will allow for the garlic. To cook. And caramelize on its own, because if you just mix it in with the vegetables, you know, the vegetables have water, the garlic really never gets to caramelize. So one side is the eggplant, the other side is the garlic, and we'll get that kind of brown, and then we'll throw in the San Marzano tomatoes. I like them nice and great because they have thin skin, very few seeds, a lot of pulp, and they make a great sauce. By the whole and then just kind of crush it or pass it through a food mill if you will. A little peperoncino as well, we'll toast that. So when the eggplant begins to to caramelize we'll throw in the tomatoes. Get some pasta water right here and slush. So I have already the pasta water cooking so you can see this is not a long process but I want to slush all of this out and put it right in here. Because I'm looking at it and I need some sauciness to put the meatballs in there. So this this is a perfectly fine sauce just in itself but we'll add meatballs to this as well. Let's let it simmer and let's make the meatballs. So some ground chuck about a pound we have the eggplant we don't need all that much. Put an egg and I'll put it on the side here and I'll whisk it a little bit before mixing it in. Let me put some salt, some chopped onions, okay, some parsley, some breadcrumbs, grated cheese. All right, all good stuff. So here we have everything is nice and homogenized and mixed. Let's make the meatballs. So the sauce is bubbling away. The meatballs are made. Just plop them right in Give them a gentle stir. So they settle in and let them Bubble away, I will clean up. In 15 minutes, 15, 20 minutes, it'll be cooked. We'll throw in some pasta, and we'll be ready to eat. Okay, so the meatballs are cooked. The eggplant is nice and soft. The sauce is perfect. Let's throw the pasta. Butta la pasta, as they say in Italy. You know, there's an old saying, you know, the farms were really close to the houses, and when it was time for lunch, Grandpa would sort of yell from the garden, Butta la pasta means throw the pasta because I'm coming, lunch should be ready, so butta la pasta. Okay, mix it a little bit, let them unwind, put the cover back on and I like to saute my pasta a little bit in the sauce itself. So let me just get some just sauce first. The pan is a little hot, ready awaiting the pasta. So you can see very well that that here This recipe that I give you, it's actually a double recipe. If you're going to make this recipe, you might as well make double. You can save some. It freezes very well. And that's the beauty of these kind of dishes, that you can really cook a big pot full and it goes a long way. Okay, I think this just slowly perks. Let's see where the pasta is. Mm-hmm. Here I have dry fettuccine, but any pasta would be great with this. So, you know, I think playing with the pastas is quite interesting, you know. It's not only about, oh, I'm going to do a pasta. Which shape with which sauce? That's a subject of major discussion in Italy, you know. What pasta goes with what sauce, with what cheese, and all of that. So, you know, think about it before you just plop your next pasta. So the pasta should be cooked. You can drain it and plop it in the sauce. I like to kind of fish my pasta out just like that. Takes a little longer. Let's... and I always leave my pasta a little al dente. These little gadgets are ever so helpful in fishing pasta out of boiling water. And you know, I always save a little bit of the pasta water. So, if I need it, if the pasta gets too dry, I come back to it, put it back and dress the pasta with the sauce. It is perfetto. I'll shut the heat, a little bit of formaggio, and I always put the cheese, you know that, after I have shut the fire off, so this way you retain maximum of cheese flavor. Ah, let me make a plateful of this delicious pasta. Just like that and then let's get some meatballs and some sauce and put it right on top. Just like that. Make a little eggplant or two or three. My piece of eggplant and I think you'll have them running to your table. But you know what? Grandma always does this. She likes to taste it right out of the pot. So that's what I will do. Gira, gira, gira, twist, twist, twist. Okay, now, when it's really great, eggplant, meatball, tomato, great pasta. This is an offering that everybody would love to come to.