Spaghetti Provençal

This is a pasta that I absolutely love to make in the late summer when all of the ingredients are at their peak. It’s a bit of a riff on a Sicilian dish called Pasta alla Norma and French Ratatouille. It’s one of those rare dishes that is both hearty and light, and really makes for a mouthwatering meal. One of the most important steps in this dish is salting and draining the eggplant and zucchini to remove the bitter liquid and improve texture in the finished dish. 

Ingredients

1 large zucchini

1 small eggplant

8 roma or early girl tomatoes

5 sprigs fresh basil

1 package good spaghetti (I prefer the thicker spaghetti alla chitarra for this)

2 anchovies

6 cloves garlic

1 small onion

½ cup of wine

Grated Ricotta Salata

Capers

Kalamata or Salt Cured Greek Olives

Aleppo pepper or calabrian chili

Sicilian Oregano

Salt

Good olive oil

Begin by cutting the zucchini and eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Lay them on a cutting board or shallow pan and generously coat in salt. Leave for 1-3 hours in a sunny place until most of their liquid has leached out. 

Wrapping a little at a time of the zucchini and eggplant in a cloth, squeeze out the excess liquid over the sink. Place the squeezed eggplant and zucchini in a large bowl and set aside.

Finely slice the garlic cloves. Pour a generous amount of olive oil in a dutch oven and add in the sliced garlic cloves, a pinch of chili pepper, two sprigs of basil and the anchovies to the cold oil. Turn the heat on to high and begin to sauté once the garlic bubbles.

Finely chop the onion and add it to the dutch oven, adding a pinch of salt and stirring frequently until the onion is translucent. Add in about a tablespoon of capers and 10 olives sliced in half. 

Now add in the zucchini and eggplant and sauté briskly. More liquid will leach out but the pieces of vegetables should remain firm. Once the liquid has cooked off add in a half cup of wine (red or white) to deglaze. 

While this is simmering, chop the tomatoes and add them back to the pan, keeping the flame high and stirring as the sauce begins to bubble. Add in another sprig of basil and stir frequently from the bottom of the pot to ensure everything is cooking evenly. At the ten minute mark the vegetables should be softening and the tomatoes “melting”. 

This is now the perfect moment to start your pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a bowl. The water should be as salty as the ocean so taste it to make sure. Once the water is boiling add in the spaghetti. You’ll have to keep tasting it to tell when it is done. A good way to know is if you bite the spaghetti and look in the center, there should be a very thin center that looks hard, while the rest is soft - that is al dente. Using tongs add in the spaghetti directly to your sauce along with a ladle or two of pasta water. Stirring vigorously to coat the pasta, keep adding more pasta water if it looks too dry. Take it off the head and taste to see if you need any more salt. Add in the sicilian oregano, the rest of the basil leaves torn up and the grated ricotta salata. Serve immediately in heaping piles on plates and enjoy!