Pasta Salad With Feta Cheese, Eggplant and Cashew Nuts

becki in Israel's Note:

This Mediterranean recipe is from one of those "special edition" recipe magazines that are often issued at holiday times. I made it for a family gathering at a vegetarian buffet type meal and it has been a hit ever since. Try to use up on same day, the fresh mint is a "must", it is great to eat even with the pasta and eggplant still warm...

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 eggplants (diced)
• 250 g penne pasta (or whatever you have available!)
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup of freshly chopped mint leaf
• salt
• white pepper
• 250 g feta cheese, grated coarsely
• 100 g unsalted dry-roasted cashews

Directions:

1. Soak cubed eggplant in cold salted water (around 2 tbsp salt to ½ litre of water) for about ½ hour.
2. Drain, rinse and dry off on a clean tea towel.
3. Heat some oil in a chip pan and deep fry the cubes until golden, remove and drain on paper kitchen towels (or old newspaper.) Place in large bowl.
4. Cook pasta as per instructions, drain ,rinse and add to eggplant.
5. Mix (you can shake in an empty jar) o.oil, B.vinegar, garlic, mint, salt and white pepper to taste –(be careful with the salt as eggplant was soaked and cheese is generally salty too).
6. Pour over the pasta mixture and mix carefully and thoroughly.
7. Grate the cheese over the top and sprinkle the toasted cashew nuts on top (don’t dismiss the nuts-they add the punch to this dish!).
8. Bon apetite.

Reviews

[Mirj]

This was divine! I'm "supposedly" on a diet so instead of deep-frying the eggplant I sprayed them with some canola oil and baked them at around 200 degrees C. I used a local Tzfatit cheese instead of feta, it's not as salty. This made for a yummy supper, and we fought over the last cashews in the bottom of the bowl. Thanks!

[Chef #nor]

I can confirm that this is a great dish.