Easy vegetarian pasta

Jump to Recipe

This pasta recipe is in my top three favorite pasta recipes! First time I tried this pasta was in Amalfi. My husband and I were there on a holiday. To this day Amalfi coast is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!

I remember hazy evening light as the sun was disappearing behind the mountains. And just the whole setting – mountains so close to the sea, pastel colored buildings, small towns and even smaller streets.. It is just magical!

One evening we were at an open-air concert and upon arrival we were each gifted one Amalfi lemon. Small things like that but also big, like views when we were walking from Ravello to Positano, made that trip unforgettable.

Back to this pasta.. When we arrived in Amalfi after whole day of traveling, we were pretty tired. We just sat at this tiny restaurant close to the stairs at the piazza in Amalfi and ordered house special. They brought us this pasta which was so good we went back four times and after third time I started analyzing the dish because I wanted to be able to recreate it.

This recipe is my version of the dish we fell in love with in Amalfi. Originally this dish was served with Scialatielli pasta, which is not easy to find where I live. So, I used casarecce instead. But you can use any thicker short cut pasta.

Easy vegetarian pasta

Course: Vegeterian

Servings

4-6

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 500 gr scialatielli or casarecce pasta

• 800 gr cherry tomatoes

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 2 anchovies fillets

• 3 garlic cloves

• 1 fresh chili or 1tsp ground chili

• Salt

• Bunch of basil

• 2 mozzarella balls

• 2 aubergine

Process

• Chop garlic and chili into small pieces. Cut tomatoes in halves. Fill large pot with water and bring to boil. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
• Wash and stab aubergine in a few places all around. Bake in the oven until soft. This takes around 45minutes and time depends on the size of aubergine. When the aubergines are soft, take them out of the oven and cut into bite size chunks.
• Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente, drain and save some of the cooking water in case you need to loosen up the sauce.
• In the meantime add olive oil to a large pan and heat up to medium heat. Add chopped garlic, anchovies and chili. Cook until anchovies dissolve and garlic becomes fragrant. Add tomato halves. Cook until they become soft and release their juices. You can help the process by crushing them with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook until sauce thickens slightly. Sauce should be thick enough to coat the pasta. Season with salt.
• Add pasta to the sauce then add basil leaves, aubergine, and mozzarella chunks. Stir to combine and serve warm.

Recipe Video

Enjoy!

M