Pasta with eggplant and almond pesto, which can also be made without a Thermomix. The pasta with eggplant pesto, creamy and delicate, is one of the quick eggplant recipes prepared with oven-roasted or air-fryer eggplants, which always win you over on the first taste. If you are looking for an idea for a first course with eggplant that can please everyone, you absolutely have to try this one, with a eggplant, basil and almond pesto. A unique, very fragrant and delicate recipe made with very few ingredients, and the eggplant pesto is so good you won’t resist eating it with bread or even straight from a spoon. When I made the pasta with eggplant pesto, my husband was so enthusiastic he asked me to make it more often. Do you know why? Because I don’t like oven-baked eggplant and rarely make it, but the other day I had leftover oven-roasted eggplant that I usually use for a baked eggplant and onion salad, and I improvised this tasty eggplant cream, which I used not only on pasta but also on pizza and some bruschetta.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer and Autumn
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant (about 1.1 lb (500 g))
- 2 sun-dried tomatoes
- 10 leaves basil
- 1.4 oz almonds
- 0.7 oz pecorino
- 1.4 oz parmesan
- 3.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 14 oz pasta
Tools
- 1 Pot
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Baking tray
- Oven or air fryer
- Blender
Steps
Rinse the eggplant, place it in the basket of the air fryer lined with parchment paper and cook for 30 minutes at 392°F, or place it on a baking tray and roast in the convection oven in the same way. In a conventional oven increase the time by 10 minutes, and for smaller eggplants reduce the time. Turn off the oven and let the eggplant cool inside the switched-off but still warm oven. Peel the warm or cold eggplant, remove the skin and shred the flesh, collect it in a colander and let it rest a few minutes so that the vegetable water is drained off.
While the eggplants cook, bring a small pot of water to a boil, add the almonds and turn off the heat. Let them sit for 5 minutes, then drain, let cool slightly and peel.
Toast the almonds in a pan until they turn golden.
Collect in the blender jug the eggplant, the sun-dried tomatoes, the peeled and toasted almonds, the cheeses, the rinsed and drained basil, the oil and blend everything until you obtain a smooth cream.
The eggplant pesto is ready; you can use it immediately at its freshest and most fragrant or store it in the refrigerator for two days, well sealed in an airtight container.
Alternatively you can portion it and freeze it to use as needed; consume within a few months. With this quantity of pesto and a little cooking water to thin it, you can dress about 14 oz of pasta.
Cook the pasta, drain it al dente and season it with the prepared cream and a little of the cooking water, toss and serve immediately. Pasta with eggplant cream should be served immediately; if you have leftovers you can keep them in the fridge for a day, reheating them in a pan with a little oil.
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