Stuffed Aubergine

I love aubergines. They are definitely one of my favourite vegetables and I think they make everything you put them in that little bit more special.

Its unlucky that Bailey isn't so keen on them. What misfortune! He does tend to like them when you do something really yummy with them though, so the other day for a quick and easy dinner I decided to make some stuffed aubergines filled with wholemeal pasta and veggies.

These bad boys are really simple to make and are sort of like mini pasta bakes. The rich tomato sauce with sweet shallots and lovely soft aubergine with a bit of a paprika kick is really lovely and is what pulls the whole dish together. A yummy and healthy midweek dinner!

Recipe (serves 4):
2 Aubergines
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
A couple of pinches of paprika
300g wholemeal mini pasta shapes
2 small slices of wholemeal bread
85g of grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cut the aubergines in half and carefully score the flesh without piercing the skin.

Scoop out the flesh of the aubergines and keep to one side. Sprinkle the aubergine skins with a little salt and spray them with cooking spray. Put them in the oven while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Finely chop the aubergine flesh, the garlic and the shallots before adding them to a frying pan to soften.

Once the veggies are nice and soft, add the chopped tomatoes and paprika to the pan and simmer over a low heat, allowing the tomatoes to reduce right down. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, get some salted water on to boil for your pasta. Once it is at a rolling boil, add the pasta shapes and cook according to the packet instructions.

Take the breadcrumbs and blend until you have fine breadcrumbs.

Once the pasta is cooked and the sauce has reduced down, drain the pasta shapes and add to the pan with the sauce and mix together.

Make sure the aubergine skins in the oven are cooked through as for me, there is no worse taste than uncooked aubergine. Once they are out of the oven, increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees C. Then you can assemble the stuffed aubergines. Fill the shells with the pasta and sauce before topping each one with an equal amount of the breadcrumbs and the cheese.

Put the aubergines back in the oven and allow to cook for around 25 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the breadcrumbs are toasty. Serve with a salad.