LADY of the NIGHT
NADIA CATALINA MUNNO is the Pasta Queen. Born in Rome, Italy, she comes from a family of pasta makers and shares their cooking secrets with millions of people every day on TikTok. In this delectable antipasto platter of over 100 recipes, cooking techniques, and tales behind Italy’s most famous dishes, Nadia guides the reader through the process of creating the perfect pasta.
The Pasta Queen is a cookook that will warm your heart, soothe your soul, and spice up your life.
Vegan lady of the night
Gluten-free farfalle with tomato, aubergine, olives and capers. Really any pasta dish in this book can be prepared with gluten-free pasta. But the Vegan Lady of the Night was specifically born with glutenfree roots. My husband, Brook, has a mild gluten intolerance and he absolutely loves the flavours of summertime. I created this dish for him and prepared it for him with all the love and heat of summer. In addition to being inspired by gluten-free pasta, Vegan Lady of the Night also draws its flavours from Puttanesca, omitting the anchovies or tuna, and enriches it with aubergine, the quintessential summer ingredient in the south of Italy. The sauce is incredible with its aubergine, olives and capers
mingling in tomatoes, a vegan variation on a classic that celebrates the greatest hits of seasonal Southern Italian flavours.
Total prep and cooking time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
Alternate pasta shapes: gluten-free penne, ziti, or fusilli
400 grams cubed (1.5cm) aubergine (about 1 large aubergine)
Sea salt
2 garlic cloves, minced 120ml extra-virgin olive oil 450g baby plum tomatoes, halved
90g olives (I like Gaeta or Kalamata)
2 Tbsp capers (rinsed and soaked if salt-packed, drained if in brine)
250g tinned peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand 450g gluten-free farfalle Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Method
Place the aubergine in a colander and sprinkle all over with an abundant amount of salt. Set aside to drain, weighted down, for 1 hour. Rinse, then pat dry with kitchen paper.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat.
Meanwhile, in a large deep saute´ pan, sizzle the garlic in the olive oil over low heat until bubbles form around it, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the aubergine, increase the heat to medium, and shower it with some salt. Stir, adding water as needed to cook the aubergine until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the baby plum tomatoes, increase the heat to medium-high, season with salt
and cook until the tomatoes soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the olives and capers. Pour in the tinned tomatoes, season with salt and cook until the sauce has thickened and the tomatoes have lost their raw flavour, about 8 minutes.
Once the water has reached a rolling boil, season with salt until the water tastes like a seasoned soup. Drop in the pasta and cook until al dente.
Add the pasta to the saute´ pan with a few spoonfuls of the tears of the gods. Simmer briefly to bring the flavours together and thicken the sauce. Serve garnished with basil leaves. —