Reginette pasta with swordfish, eggplant and mint.
This Sicilian swordfish pasta recipe is a treat for the taste buds! It includes fried eggplant with fresh mint and some grated lemon rind all of which really give it a delicious distinctive flavour.
Servings: 4
Calories: 405kcal
Ingredients
- 400 g Reginette/Mafaldine pasta (14oz)
- 1 eggplant (1 large or 2 small )
- 250-300 g swordfish steaks (10oz) fresh is better than frozen but you can use both
- 2 peeled garlic cloves
- 200 g datterini or ripe cherry tomatoes . (7oz) cut in half
- 1 handful of fresh mint leaves chopped (dried mint doesn’t work well)
- ½ glass white wine
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 lemon for grating
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta. Add salt once it starts to boil and bring to the boil again.
- Wash the eggplant and cut it into cubes.
- Pour some olive oil into a large frying pan, about 1-2 cm, and when it's hot, fry the eggplant cubes until golden brown.
- Remove the eggplant from the pan using a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
- Discard the remaining oil and give the pan a quick wipe.
- Remove any skin and the centre bone (if it has one) from the swordfish with a sharp knife and cut into cubes, roughly the same size as the aubergine.
- Heat some more olive oil in the frying pan and add the peeled garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to colour, add the swordfish.
- Fry the fish for 2-3 minutes (turning the pieces over so they seal on both sides), then add the white wine. Turn up the heat and as soon as the alcohol has evaporated, remove the pan from the fire and sprinkle the fish with some chopped mint and grated lemon rind. Set it aside to marinate a little.
- In another small frying pan, add some more olive oil and fry the halved datterini or cherry tomatoes until they start to soften and the skins start to come loose.
- Add the tomatoes and eggplant to the pan with the fish and cook together for a further 3-4 minutes on a medium heat.
- Add some more chopped mint and a little more grated lemon rind. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook the pasta al dente in the boiling salted water according to the instructions on the packet.
- When the pasta is al dente, drain quickly and mix together with the swordfish, tomatoes, eggplant cubes and the rest of the mint.
- Serve immediately if you are using long pasta, however this dish can also be eaten tepid or cold if made with short pasta.
Notes
Some people salt the eggplant before cooking to draw out excess moisture and bitterness but I didn’t.
This recipe can be made with other long pasta such as spaghetti or short pasta such as penne, rigatoni, busiate, casarecce, strozzapreti etc
This recipe can be made with other long pasta such as spaghetti or short pasta such as penne, rigatoni, busiate, casarecce, strozzapreti etc