Aubergine and pancetta pasta

This dish was an attempt to get some summertime into a bowl, inspired by the delicious and highly individual pasta dishes of Sicily. The flavour combinations on the island reflect the history and the different waves of people who have arrived on its shores. If you want to add more of those flavours, feel free to add fennel seeds, and/or toasted pine nuts, and/or raisins. 

 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 shallot, diced

Small pack of cubetti de pancetta (or lardons)

2 tbsp plus another 2 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves finely chopped garlic

3 anchovies in chilli oil (or 3 anchovies in salt which have been rinsed, or in plain oil and you can add chilli flakes if you want a little heat)

1 can cherry tomatoes (I was feeling fancy so I used Mutti brand)

Half a teaspoon dried oregano

half a tablespoon chopped capers

1 small aubergine cut into half inch or 1 cm cubes (if you have a larger aubergine use half to two thirds)

220-250g dried pasta try to use bronze die cut pasta (I used gigli)

3 tbsp parmesan cheese

 

Method

Fry aubergine in 2 tbsp of olive oil until golden and there is a little shrinkage. Put to one side. Reuse the pan for the pancetta, you can wipe clean if you wish.

Dry fry the pancetta until cooked but not crispy, and empty onto a plate covered in kitchen roll.

Then fry the diced shallot in 2 tbsp olive oil for 5 mins, keeping things moving so the shallots don’t brown or burn.

Add the finely chopped garlic and anchovies in chilli oil. Cook for another 2 minutes, until you can smell the garlic softening.

Add a tin of cherry tomatoes with their juice, the dried oregano, and the chopped capers. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Allow to cook into a slightly thickened sauce. While cooking, boil either a pan of water or a kettle of water for cooking the pasta. Then cook 220-250g pasta in salted water to 1 min less than the al dente time.

Then add the aubergine to the tomato sauce in the last 5 or so minutes of cooking time.

Drain pasta, reserving half a mug of pasta cooking water if needed. Then add pasta to the pan with the sauce, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

If you need to add pasta cooking water to loosen the pasta and sauce, add a little at a time, keeping pasta and sauce on very low heat. Try to do this in 1-2 minutes to avoid over softening the pasta (something I never have to worry about with pasta!).

When happy with consistency, taste and season, then serve, topping with parmesan. Eat while hot.

 

August 2026 favourites list

This month’s pictures are from a very pleasant lunch I had at the famous London restaurant Fallow. The restaurant serves up “modern British cuisine” putting a principle of “conscious usage of British produce” at the forefront of what they do, with sustainable practices. The two main chefs, Jack Croft and Will Murray, have worked at some top restaurants Dinner (Jack), Core, The Fat Duck and The Clove Club (Will), but at Fallow they have managed to be classy but not snooty. It feels like a pleasant and relaxed place to treat yourself to a special meal rather than the more demanding “fine dining” experience.  

 

I hope you will like the food photos, but also the selections of food writings, kitchen tips, and recipes for this month. If you have been wilting in the heat, I feel your pain. Let us hope for rain and for the mercury to fall in September! 

Foodie inspiration 

Chinatown Bakery’s Roast pork bun and roast pork pastries are something I love to buy either when in London’s Chinatown or any of the Chinese grocery shops which sell their products. If you love pandan cake and all the other gorgeous baked treats, you will be pleased to know they are expanding: https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/chinatown-bakery-20-locations-080426  

 

The much missed chef, food writer, and culinary explorer Anthony Bourdain was not just a born genius chef. He worked his way up from washing up to food preparation to cooking, learning skills from many people who were migrants and people of colour. In this article, Jason Jesudason says the new film Tony concentrating on the year of his life where he started to work in restaurants does not properly honour his work and legacy:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20260812-why-anthony-bourdain-biopic-tony-fails-to-honour-the-chefs-work  

Emiko Davies' defence of Japanese food, after *that* horrible racist piece in The Canberra Times exposes the original author's stunning ignorance. It is also a good read on Japanese food. [I know it is on Substack, I can't help that.] https://emikodavies.substack.com/p/japanese-curry-is-the-worst-curry 

A history of Japanese food culture with the startling revelation that eating red meat only started in Japan in the mid to late 19th Century.   https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich/archive/notable-sandwiches-145-yakisoba-pan/  

 

Science expert Hannah Fry talks air fryers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0029kt8/the-secret-genius-of-modern-life-series-3-1-air-fryer  

Nigel Ng AKA Uncle Roger on MSG and why it is misunderstood plus some chat about the Uncle Roger phenomenon and the best egg fried rice (podcast plus bonus cook along edition): https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/nigel-ng-aka-uncle-roger-on-msg-and-the-best-egg-fried-rice  

Kitchen tips 

What is the best way to store tomatoes? Cold in the fridge makes them tasteless, that’s for sure. But can I be bothered to tape them all at the top? I am unconvinced. https://www.foodandwine.com/best-way-to-store-tomatoes-12032959  

Personally, I use parmesan rinds by putting them in my risotto when I leave it to sit with grated parmesan and butter, but it’s too hot to sweat over a pan of stock, ladling it into risotto, right? So here is Tom Hunt’s pesto recipe using up a single parmesan rind.  https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/aug/12/how-to-leftover-parmesan-rind-pesto-recipe-zero-waste-cooking  

 

They are a bit light on the cooking details, but Science Daily have explored the idea that microwaving your chips before frying might make them absorb less oil when you fry. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260729044048.htm  

Recipes  

Mieke has shared a new recipe, which you can call a vegan sobrasada or a sun dried tomato dip. Either way, it will taste great on toast, flatbread or on pasta. https://www.dorothy-porker.com/vegan-sobrasada-from-sundried-tomatoes/ 

 

Grain salads might be a way to go this summer if you are bored of salad leaf. This chicken, chickpea, and grain-salad with green harissa is served warm and takes 10 minutes: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a73403903/chicken-chickpea-grain-salad-green-harissa/  

Kavey recently reviewed the Chinese Made Easy cookbook by Kwoklyn Wan, sharing this Minced Lamb and Aubergine Noodles recipe from the book. Sadly, I couldn’t get hold of any lamb mince in my local supermarket, but I did make it with pork mince and it was delicious: https://www.kaveyeats.com/minced-lamb-and-aubergine-noodles   

May at Eat Cook Explore shares the recipe for Shakalaka, a sweet and spicy vegetable relish originating in Soweto, South Africa: https://www.eatcookexplore.com/chakalaka-recipe-a-south-african-condiment/  

 

Diana Henry’s recipe for Turkish spiced chicken with flatbreads and green relish from Saturday Kitchen:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/turkish_spiced_chicken_12732  

Fowl Mouth’s supperclub host and cookbook author Melissa Thompson uses Japanese flavours in this Bavette steak recipe with ponzu:  https://www.nigella.com/recipes/guests/ponzu-pepper-and-garlic-bavette  

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations. 

July 2026 Favourites list

Hello my foodie friends! Summer is continuing to surprise us, and here in London there have been 20 plus days without rain. The heat this summer has meant some days of cooking, and others of working out how not to work over a steamy stove or pull things out of a burning hot oven. So this month I am sharing some ideas for salads, dips, and cool dishes.

My photos this month are from a visit to Yi-Ban restaurant situated at the Royal Docks. Across the river is London City Airport, so if you or someone you go out with loves plane watching, this is a sound pick (there are floor to ceiling window views of the airport which is just across the river). The restaurant itself is one of the biggest in London, I would guess. This is for good reason, as it is enormously popular for its dim sum, which is served from 12pm (opening time) to 5pm (when the dinner menu comes in). In fact, the dim sum lunch is so popular, there are queues at peak time, and a deli counter style numbered ticket system to ensure no pushing in.

 

I had read about this restaurant on the Evening Standard website, in an article about Hidden London, and I was ready to feed my dim sum obsession. When I arrived to see the queue of ticket holding punters eagerly waiting their turn, I wondered why I had only heard of this place a couple of months ago. Especially since it opened in 2003!

I visited in the weekend, which means I saw tables of 8 to 10 people, often with three generations sitting together enjoying the delightful steamed dumplings and savouring the crispy fried treats. It always gives me an uplifting feeling to see this sharing of food, of love, of life experience. Yi-Ban gave me an authentic Cantonese dim sum experience, as I tucked into some of my favourites, along with a couple of dishes which were new to me. It was something of a far cry from my home in South East London, but well worth the journey.

Food articles

Mieke, who lives in south west France, shares her Things to buy at the French supermarket just in time for the summer holidays. The Brets chips (crisps) are one purchase I can vouch for. Have a read before you travel! https://www.dorothy-porker.com/things-to-buy-at-the-french-supermarket/

 

Cheung fun

 

Kavey has put another new cookbook through its paces. Read her review of Mushroom: 80 Recipes Celebrating Remarkable Mushrooms by Claire Thomson with her impressions about the structure and usefulness of the book, plus recipe testing: https://www.kaveyeats.com/mushroom-claire-thomson

So many people from the Indian diaspora have felt embarrassed about the smell of our food. We didn’t want neighbours to smell it, or to go to work or school with clothes smelling of it the next day. But the smell of spices cooking is also one of the best aromas in the world. Hearing successful restauranteur Nisha Katona express her previous embarrassment about curry smells reminded me of my own experience: https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/nisha-katona-curry-bible-cookbook-indian-food-recipes-mowgli-restaurant-b3006555.html

 

A depressing but useful read (mainly for US people) about how cookware has gotten worse quality wise and intentionally so, with a helpful list of makes you can still trust. It seems that ensh*ttification has made it into the kitchen too: https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-cookware-got-worse-on-purpose

Food and culture

British fishermen, whose catches go to South Korea, eat Korean seafood dishes for the first time. Heartwarming to see them embrace the Korean food culture. https://youtu.be/kAaQafKGF7U?is=N-hB-8Oq4VzaJInM

 

Kitchen tips

If you prefer no-recipe cooking, this from Anna Jones, is on how to build a salad, breaks it down into layers. A liberating way to think about weekday dinners. https://observer.co.uk/food/recipes/article/how-to-build-a-perfect-salad

Six tinned foods nutritionists say deserve a comeback; sardines, lentils, cannellini beans, mackerel, corn, and crab: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/tinned-foods

Recipes

Some ideas of what to cook when it is too hot. Who wants to be stood over the hob in the heat? https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/heatwave-recipes-quick-dinners-too-hot-to-cook-b3010344.html

Eight delicious weekend lunch recipes using chicken: Brick roast chicken and braised chipotle cabbage, Blackened chicken with caramel and clementine dressing, Romanian Pilaf cu Pui – chicken pilaf with potatoes and garlic courgettes, Malaysian/Singaporean Curry leaf chicken legs with salted egg yolk sauce, Harissa and lemon roasted chicken thighs, Herby chicken, leek and mushroom casserole, Crunchy chicken Caesar dip, Chicken with pineapple and ‘nduja: https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/chicken-recipes-spring-roast-salad-ottolenghi-b2932542.html  Archived here: https://archive.is/9yZBB

 

I enjoy sprouting seeds, particularly pulses and beans, primarily to use in chaat dishes. But I stumbled on this mung bean recipe which is from Henry Chung's cookbook from his Hunan Restaurant in San Francisco. There are a lot of ingredients, but unused dressing can be kept in the fridge for a few days, and you can make the salad more substantial by adding shredded cooked chicken and noodles: https://sproutpeople.org/blogs/recipes/hunan-mung-beans-in-outrageous-dressing-1

Across east Asia, cool noodle salads are a way of keeping your internal temperature down and avoiding spending a long time in a hot kitchen. Here is a sesame noodle recipe New York Chinese restaurant style which you could add and fill out to a full meal very easily: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chilled-sesame-noodles

 

Dips and sauces are life savers when you don’t want to cook and just want to assemble a salad or light meal. Here is a Courgette and feta dip for when you get bored of supermarket houmous: https://theweek.com/culture-life/food-drink/courgette-feta-dip-recipe And here is a Dill mayonnaise for summer salads: https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/entertain/dilly-mayonnaise/

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.