ORECCHIETTE CACIO AND PEPPER ON AUBERGINE CREAM AND CARAMELATED TOMATOES
12.70 oz Barilla Orecchiette
2 medium sized eggplants
7.05 pz Datterini tomatoes
7.05 oz aged Pecorino Romano
2.82 oz basil
3 shallots
1 clove of garlic
2.82 oz Extra Virgin Olive oil
0.35 oz of icing sugar
fresh thyme
citrus peel
salt and pepper in grains
friying oil
rice flour or potato starch for friying
Take the cherry tomatoes, wash and cut them in half and arrange them on a baking sheet. Season with icing sugar, garlic cut into thin slices, the citrus peel, salt, thyme and a drizzle of oil; bake at 120 ° C for about 60 minutes. The cherry tomatoes will be ready when they are partially dehydrated.
Then take the aubergines, wash them and, with the help of a potato peeler, completely remove the skin keeping it aside.
Cut the aubergines in half and season with oil, salt, pepper and shallots, wrap them in foil and bake at 150°C for about 1 hour or until they are soft to the heart.
Once are cooked, cut them into pieces, blend them with oil and, if necessary, add salt and pepper.
Keep them warm.
Wash the basil gently, set aside 8 beautiful leaves and blanch the rest in very salted hot water for 15 seconds. Cool everything quickly in water and ice and then blend with Evo oil.
Prepare the Cacio e Pepe base by roughly crushing the black pepper in a mortar or with a knife.
Also prepare the grated pecorino and set it aside.
Take the skin of the aubergines and sliced them thinly, pass them in the potato starch or the rice flour and fry them for a few seconds in hot seed oil, the aubergine must be crispy but not burnt.
If you want to decorate the dish with basil leaves, you can fry them by immersing for a few moments in boiling oil, the advice is to dip the dry leaf immediately covering the pan for a few seconds, alternatively you can decorate it with fresh basil leaf.
Cook the pasta in abundant salted water, drain it al dente and finish in a pan where you have previously toasted only the pepper for a few seconds. Remove the pan from the heat for a little moment and add the cheese, mix everything and, if necessary, add a little cooking water to obtain a homogeneous and enveloping cream.
Take a flat plate, arrange a layer of aubergine cream at the base, arrange Orecchiette in a fish-scale way and finish by decorating with the aubergine skin, the caramelized cherry tomatoes, the basil oil and the fried or fresh basil leaves.
