Calamarata Pasta with Eggplant, Olives, Pecorino Romano and Almonds
Sperlonga is a pretty clifftop town on Lazio’s southern coast approaching the border with Campania. Its unique elevated position on the Ulysses Riviera means that it has glorious views towards Monte Circeo in the north and Gaeta in the south. I once stopped there at Bar Il Trani, where I had a pasta dish that contained aubergine but no tomato, its usual stablemate. Instead, the dish featured one of Lazio’s best-known exports – pecorino romano – as well as the Latina coast’s most covetable produce, Gaeta olives. The dish stayed with me, and this is my interpretation of how they might have made it. The original was served with paccheri – large, smooth tubes of pasta from Naples. I find them a little unwieldy so have replaced them with pasta calamarata, which are also from Naples. It’s really important with this recipe to get proper olives and not the plain pitted ones in tins.
1 large eggplant100 grams flaked almonds75ml olive oil, plus extra to serve1 garlic clove, unpeeled, lightly squashed with the edge of a knifesea salt and ground pepper80 grams Gaeta or Kalamata olives, cut in half lengthways and pitted150ml white wine (anything you have knocking around in the fridge will do)500 grams pasta calamarata (paccheri or rigatoni are also fine)120 grams pecorino romano, finely grated, plus extra, coarsely grated, to servegrated zest of 1
