Name: Baba Ganoush Pasta Salad
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: Bulb of Garlic; 4 Aubergines; 400g Rigatoni; 1 Tbsp Tahini; 1 Lemon; Bunch of Basil; 20g Pine Nuts; 210g Kalamata Olives; 80g Pomegranate Seeds; Bunch of Mint; Olive Oil

Baba Ganoush Pasta Salad

Check out our baba ganoush recipe to make your own. This is great to use any leftovers. Smokey aubergine, kalamata olives and juicy, sweet pomegranate seeds.

Greek Healthy Pasta

Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F.

Place the garlic bulb onto a tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

As the garlic is cooking, char the aubergines on a gas stove. As the aubergines begin to cook, the skin will start to blacken. Once the skin is completely charred and black, remove the aubergines and place them in a bowl of ice cold water.

As the aubergines cool, the skin will become loose, allowing you to peel away the charred skin easily from the aubergine, leaving only the middle.

Get the pasta on.

Chop the ends off the peeled aubergines and place them in a bowl. Remove the garlic bulb from the oven. Take one clove of garlic at a time and squeeze the inside of each clove from its skin (this should be easy because they are cooked). Once you have squeezed each clove, combine the aubergine and the garlic with a fork, mashing it up.

Add tahini, the juice of a lemon, a large glug of olive oil and a sprinkling of pepper before mixing again. Roughly chop up the basil and sprinkle on top. Give your Baba Ganoush a final mix before setting aside.

Once your pasta is cooked, drain, setting a little pasta water aside. Combine the pasta with the Baba Ganoush mixture, stirring well. In a separate pan, lightly toast the pine nuts and add this to the mixture along with the kalamata olives and two thirds of the pomegranate seeds.

Roughly chop up the mint, adding two thirds to the pasta mixture along with the remaining pasta water and a sprinkling of salt and pepper in order to loosen the sauce slightly, giving it a silky consistency.

Serve by sprinkling the remaining mint and pomegranate seeds over the top of each bowl.