Spaghetti with Capers and Fresh Tomatoes

I really enjoy cooking simple food for myself when I am home alone. Today, I created a simple pasta that was delicious. I served this with a little fried eggplant and fresh baguette chip I made during the day.

Spaghetti with Capers and Tomatoes

First, I cooked one serving of thin spaghetti.Cook this to according to the package. Use any spaghetti you like. Next, slice up a small tomato. Once the spaghetti is cooked remove the water except about a 1/2 of a cup then set this to the side. Then, in a frying pan add olive oil and as much fresh crushed garlic you want. Allow the garlic to cook for a minute. Afterwards add the slices of tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of capers, and, the spaghetti with water. Allow this to cook for a few minutes. Then, season with a tablespoon of dried basil. Continue to cook until the water thickens. This will probably take about 6 minutes. You can double this recipe if you are cooking for more than just yourself.

Fried Eggplant

I cooked fried eggplant to eat with this. It is optional to garnish with, but very tasty if you choose to.

Slice your up your eggplant. You can do this in slices. I prefer to make small pizza-like slices after slice it into slivers. I think it makes it cook faster and makes the pieces crisper. Next, make the batter. Add about a cup of semolina flour, 2 tsps of black pepper, 2 tsps of salt, and 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to one bowl. Then, in another bowl, add 1 cup of milk, 1 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of pepper. Dump all your slices of egg plant into the milk allow the eggplant to sit in the milk for a minute. Then, cover each eggplant slice with the flour mixture. You can double this batter and milk mixture if needed to make a larger amount. I only cooked 2 slices (8 pizza-like slices) with this amount.

Heat up a pan with olive oil. I do not deep fry. I just cover the pan with enough olive oil to fry the eggplant on each side. You can add oil as needed. I recommend to heat the oil up on a medium heat. If too high, the oil will burn.

Add the eggplant and allow the each side to get crispy. This took me about 2 to 3 minutes on each side in hot oil.

Serve the spaghetti and eggplant in your favorite serving dish. I prefer to eat spaghetti in bowls. Also, serve with your favorite type of bread. I will add my bread recipe and how to make baguette chips another time. :)

Enjoy! Best eaten warm and with a good glass of your favorite wine.