Evelyn's Favorite Pasta...tried at home

EVELYN'S FAVORITE PASTA Penne Tossed with Broccoli, Oven-Dried Tomato, Roasted Eggplant, Peppers, Artichoke, Kalamata Olives, Basil, Garlic, Pine Nuts and Parmesan Cheese

We went to Cheesecake Factory for the first time, couple of weeks ago. We were actually giving farewell to a friend of ours who was leaving to India for good. We decided to go to Thai first but one of our friends mentioned that they use Fish oil in cooking. And being complete vegetarians, this was alarming. I called up all the Thai restaurants I ate in and around RTP and everyone said the same thing “yes, we use fish oil, but if you don’t want it, please let us know”. It was our fault that we should have asked but who knew they would use that…so, we cancelled our plan to Thai and went to Cheesecake Factory instead. We thought there will be less number of vegetarian dishes or none and went with the idea of eating a salad.

We ordered Eggplant Burger, Cheese Quesadilla and this pasta. We loved them all and thought of going there again but it never worked out . So I made this at home by bringing all the necessary ingredients. The only difference was that they added roasted brinjal and I didn’t. But, still the taste was close. I omitted Artichoke, Kalamata Olives, Basil and Parmesan Cheese and instead of pine nuts, I added walnuts.

You need…

2 cups of veggies-broccoli, oven-dried tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, eggplant, all chopped
1 cup of penne pasta
4 or 5 tbsp olive oil
About 5 or 6 walnuts
2 or 3 garlic cloves.
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a pan, add cloves and fry them till light brown. Add a little pepper to it while cloves are frying.
2. Add all the veggies and stir fry them.
3. In the mean while, cook penne pasta till al-dente.
4. Drain pasta and add to the veggies and mix.
5. Add Italian seasoning, walnuts and salt and mix everything for 1-2 minutes and remove.
   

Serve hot.

Imam Bayildi/Fainted

This is my version of the dish (and not the authentic one). I have seen various different versions of preparing this dish and I picked up few points from each and made this. And I LOVED it so much that I ate that whole brinjal/eggplant piece at one go. Ravi couldn't eat so he took half for the lunch today. After eating this I felt that I should make this often, atleast twice a month.

The changes that I made to this dish are: I added all types of peppers (had in the refrigerator) and instead of only garlic, I added ginger-garlic paste (as I ran out of garlic pods) and then I added bread crumbs at the end and didn't put chilli flakes. Adding bread crumbs made a huge difference and made the dish much more delicious. And I didn't throw the core part, I made bhaingan bartha with it, but could not take pictures of that.

Here is the story why this name was given to this dish (copied from Asha at Foodie's hope)

TURKISH IMAM BAYILDI (The Imam Fainted!): "There are many stories about the origin of the name of this dish. One of them we heard while visiting Ankara, Turkey's capital. A long time ago a Turkish Imam (a muslim clergy man ), known for his love of good food, surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to the young daughter of a wealthy olive-oil merchant. The friends did not know about her ability to cook. But they presumed part of her dowry would include olive oil. They were right. For her father gave the groom twelve jars, each one large enough to hold a person, of the precious oil. After her marriage the bride proved to be an excellent cook and each day prepared a special dish for her epicurean husband. One of them, eggplant cooked in olive oil, became his favorite. And he ordered that his wife prepare it each night for dinner. This she did for twelve consecutive days. On the thirteenth, however, the dish was missing from the meal. Queried about its absence, the bride replied, "Dear husband, I do not have any more olive oil. You will have to purchase some more for me." The lmam was so shocked that he fainted. And since that day, according to the story, his favorite dish has been known as Imam Bayildi, The Imam Fainted!"

You need...

One large eggplant, cut into half and scoop out seeds from the center
1 large red onion, chopped
½ green, yellow and red peppers, chopped (optional-but tastes good when added)
1 or 2 roma tomatoes, chopped in rounds or into small pieces, I wanted to decorate it with tomatoes, so used round ones.
1-2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
½ cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp cumin
a pinch of cinnamon,
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
½ cup oil
cilantro, chopped for garnishing
1-1/2 cup water
salt to taste

1. Heat oil, add onions, peppers and stir fry for 2 mins.
2. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for another minute.
3. Add tomatoes and fry for another minute.
4. Add cumin, cinnamon and salt and remove.
5. To the same pan, add tbsp oil and bread crumbs with ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste and remove after a minute.
6. To arrange, fill the whole cooked mixture from step 4 into those two eggplant slices (by removing tomatoes-can be used for decoration on the top). Add bread crumb mixture on the top, arrange tomatoes and add cilantro all over.
7. Finally drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
8. Arrange these two pieces in oven proof dish. Add water from the sides and cover it tightly and bake at 375 for 30-40 mins.

Very healthy meal and next time I will try to reduce the oil a bit.

Recipe source: From Asha of Foodie'sHope