Sun dried tomato & roast vegetable conchiglie

Ingredients    Sun dried tomatoes, tomato passata, 4 garlic cloves, aubergine, courgette, parmigiano, conchiglie pasta

1) Slice the aubergine into thick slices and rest in a colander. Sprinkle with salt to draw out the bitter juices. After 20 minutes, rinse off the juice and pat dry. 


2) Cut the aubergine into chunks and roast in the oven along with some sliced and quartered chunks of courgette. If your sun dried tomatoes are marinated with oil - use some of the oil to drizzle on the vegetables before roasting.


3) Using the same oil - add some into a pan and crush 4 cloves of white garlic into it. It has a wonderfully rich flavour but keep the heat low as this type of oil will burn very easily. Don't use the oil if it contains vinegar or herbs or spices as these flavours will likely burn too and leave you with a bitter mess!
Add the tomato passata and stir through.


4) Finely slice the sun dried tomatoes and add to the pan, along with the roasted vegetables. You shouldn't need to season further due to the intensity of the sun dried tomatoes (and bear in mind this will be topped with parmeggian too!) but this is entirely to taste.


5) Boil the conchiglie for 10-15 minutes in boiling salted water. Strain the pasta and stir it into the sauce, spinkle with shaved parmeggian and serve.



If you can't bear the thought of eating a vegetarian dish, why not stir through some parma ham?