Alas the only picture of this dish would be of two empty plates smeared with sauce and watched over by two burping, sated diners. It looks nice and it tastes great and if you want to see what it looks like then get off the computer and get into the kitchen. Now dammit!
This needs to be baked in a lidded dish large enough to lay out the pasta at the bottom of the dish. Assume 6 pieces of pasta for each person and test the dish size by laying out the right amount of pasta straight from the packet.
Ingredients (Serves two as a main meal)
- 1 tin chick peas (or approx 2.5 cups of home cooked chickpeas)
- 1 tin tomatoes
- Lumaconi pasta or other large pasta that can be stuffed. About 6 pieces each
- 1 large carrot, grated
- half a cup of celery, finely chopped
- 1 medium eggplant
- 1 large zuchinni
- 1 medium onion, crushed (put it through the garlic press. WARNING – onion juice squirted in your eye hurts)
- 3 to 4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 tbl spn light miso
- 1 cup of white wine
- 1 to 2 cups of water or stock
- olive oil
- 1 tspn paprika
- 1/2 tspn smoked paprika
- 1/2 tspn cumin
- 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
- cracked pepper
- tamari sauce
- handful of fresh parsley, chopped
- sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped
- 2 or 3 fresh bay leaves
Method
- Lightly saute the chickpeas in a closed saucepan with a splash of olive oil with the garlic, onion, paprikas, cumin, and cayenne. Take off the heat and mash. Add a generous splash of tamari and the carrot, mix thoroughly and set aside until cool enough to handle the mix
- While the chickpea mix is cooling pour a generous splash of olive oil in the bottom of the baking dish. Put the oven on to warm. Chop the eggplant and zuchinni into large chunks. Chop the celery and the herbs, have a glass of wine, go feed a bird some seeds and whistle to them a bit. They’ll think you’re mad and pity you for not having wings but the gift of some seed to eat will see you good.
- Stuff the Lumaconi pasta with the chickpea mix and lay out the pasta at the bottom of the oiled baking dish. If there is any mix remaining just add to the dish.
- Top the pasta with the chopped herbs and the bay leaves
- Add the zuchinni, eggplant, and chopped celery. Add the miso and a generous grind of pepper
- Cover with the tomatoes
- Add the wine and water/stock
- Bake covered in a prewarmed medium oven for about an hour. Check about the 40 minute mark to make sure it is not drying out. If so add more water/stock.