I just love this very simple and quick Sicilian pasta dish.

1 aubergine
3 cloves of garlic
200g fresh tomatoes

That’s it ….. apart from a tiny pinch of dried chilli and a sprig of basil.

Chop the aubergine into bite size pieces and fry in olive oil until cooked and golden. When done remove and place on a kitchen paper lined plate.

Meanwhile chop the garlic quite finely and in a separate pan fry in olive oil for a few moments, don’t let it burn else it turns bitter. Add the diced tomatoes, a pinch of dried chilli (enough so you’d hardly notice it in the finished sauce but would notice if it wasn’t there!) and a few leaves of basil. I try and use San Marzano tomatoes but the important bit is that they are flavoursome tomatoes and not the pale, tasteless tomatoes often simply described as ‘salad tomatoes’ in the supermarket. Put a lid on the pan and let the tomatoes cook down for about 10 minutes then fish out the basil leaves.

Add the aubergine pieces to the tomatoes and warm everything through. Serve with any pasta, I like either penne or rigatoni for this dish, a few leaves of basil and grated parmesan.