Breaded Aubergine with tomato sauce and tagliatelli

Serves: 4
Total cost per person: 2 zl/ 0.40 GDP/ 0.46 EURO/ 0.60 USD

This one's a firm favourite with everyone, including my kids (good to get the kids enjoying a vegetarian meal, I reckon), and brings to your table some rustic flavours of Italy. This is the kind of meal you'll find in Italian homes rather than Italian restaurants and it's dead easy to make. So here goes!

What you'll need:

- a slim medium-sized aubergine
- one tin of tomatoes (whizzed up in a blender)
- 1 plump clove of garlic
- a handful of fresh basil leaves
- salt and pepper
- flour
- 1-2 eggs
- breadcrumbs
- 200g tagliatelli

1. Cut the aubergine into fairly thin slices, salt and leave in a bowl for 30 minutes

2. In the meantime, let's get cracking on the tomato sauce! Throw some olive oil into a pan, turn the gas to medium, roughly chop the garlic and throw in for around 30 secs until the garlic just starts to brown (but doesn't burn!).

3. Add the whizzed-up tomatoes. Chop up the basil by rolling all the leaves into a "cigar" and then finely slicing through. Throw into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer on a low heat for around 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly and you're done! A fantastic yet easy tomato sauce!

4. Get 3 things ready - a small plate with flour, a larger plate with breadcrumbs and a bowl with some whisked egg.

5. Rinse the aubergines, gather them all up between the palms of your hands and give them a good squeeze to get some moisture out - this will give a better result when they're fried.

6. Pat the aubergines in flour, then dip into the egg and finally pat onto the breadcrumbs - this will coat them nicely.

7. Pour enough olive oil into a frying pan to just cover the bottom. Switch on the gas to medium. Fry the aubergine slices until golden - you'll need to turn them a couple of times during this process and it will take around 10 minutes. When done, put on kitchen paper to absorb some of that excess olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

8. While you're frying the aubergines, boil up a pan of water and throw in some salt. Cook the tagliatelli till al dente (typically 6 minutes, but check the packet just in case!). It's a good idea to set the alarm on your phone to avoid soggy pasta syndrome. Drain. When you're ready to serve, boil up a kettle and pour the boiling water over the pasta - this will "bring it back to life" as it were.

9. We're ready! 

The costing:


a slim medium-sized aubergine - 2 zl
one tin of tomatoes (whizzed up in a blender) - 1.9 zl
garlic, basil, salt, pepper, flour, eggs - 2 zl
breadcrumbs - 0 zl (you can use stale bread - just whizz it up in a blender)
200g tagliatelli - 2 zl

Total: 7.9 zl
Serves: 4
Total per person: 2 zl 

Here's the interesting part - the costing is based on Polish prices so I'm wondering how much would it cost to make this dish where you come from?

Feel free to post comments below.