Rice 'alla Puttanesca' with eggplant and yogurt
We all know 'Pasta alla Puttanesca'. A very popular Italian pasta dish based on simple ingredients and with the idea to create a "quick and easy" recipe".
Servings: 4 persons
Equipment
- deep frying pan
- oven
Ingredients
- 400 gr rice
- 2 eggplant
- 250 gr greek yogurt
- 4 tbl spoon olive oil
- 2 tea spoon dried oregano
- black pepper and seasalt
To make the Puttanesca sauce:
- 6 anchovies from a little can
- 2 tomatoes fresh and ripe
- 1 tea spoon dried oregano
- 2 tbl spoon parsley chopped
- 350 gr tomato sauce a can
- 2 tbl spoon tomato paste
- 2 tbl spoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1½ tbl spoon capers
- 50 gr black olives cut halve or in rings
- ½ tea spoon chili flakes or 1/4 fresh spicy pepper (seedless)
- 2 dried mini peppers (guindilla) If you don't like spicy, leave it out!
- few basil leaves optional! I added it because I like spicy food
- pepper and salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180º.Wash the aubergines and cut them in half, lengthwise. Make additional diagonal cuts on the cut surface. Make a herbal oil with the olive oil, oregano, pepper and salt. Brush the cutted surface of the aubergines with this oil.Place baking paper on a baking tray and put the aubergines cut-side up on the tray, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes at 180º.Remove the foil and let them bake for another 20 minutes.
- Put a pot of water on the heat to cook the rice and add a little salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. I rinse the rice with water before I put it in the cooking water. Cook the rice according to the instructions and time stated on the package.
Now we make the Puttanesca sauce:
- Peel and shred the garlic. Cut the tomatoes into cubes. (I dried a few sweet cherry tomatoes in the morning in the oven. Halve them, sprinkle with olive oil and oregano, put them on baking paper and dry them in the oven for 3 hours at 120º... sun-dried is of course much tastier but I didn't have them anymore) This is optional, because I like an extra "bite" in the recipe.
- Cut the anchovies into pieces.Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan (which you can add the rice afterwards). Add the garlic, anchovies and chilli flakes. After a few minutes the garkic will color and the anchovies will melt. Then add the capers, black olives and diced tomatoes. Let it simmer for a while and finally add the cut tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, parsley and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.Stir well.
- When the rice is ready, remove the excess water and add it to the Puttanesca sauce. Mix everything well.
- Remove the eggplant from the oven, place them on top of the rice and spoon one tablespoon of yogurt on each eggplant. Season with salt and pepper.
- The extra basil leaves for decoration are optional. For me, basil gives an extra Mediterranean touch to the dish.
Notes
There are, of course, several variations of the Puttanesca recipe. Each region in Italy has its own accent... There are also different versions about the origin of the name:
Some believe it was a dish made by a brothel owner in a Spanish 'tipple' neighborhood in Naples. He offered the dish to his customers enticing them with the spicy smell of the ingredients.
Others believe this was a nutritious and "quick-ready dish" that prostitutes could prepare in between their clients.
And then there's the version that the sauce originated around Ischia, made by Sandro Petti, the co-owner of the restaurant Rangio Felon. Some customers came to the restaurant so late that they ran out of fresh ingredients and he gathered ingredients... His dish was popularly called 'una puttanata qualsiasi', which literally translates as 'prostitute any' but also ' all rubbish' means.
