【Natto pasta Caponata style】Jay’s Hacco-licious Recipes vol.36

Jay Asanuma is a formally trained chef, certified holistic health coach, and runs an organic fermented foods business in New York. As a long time researcher of fermented (hacco) foods, Jay will share his delicious hacco recipes for you to try at home.

Natto pasta Caponata style

Ingredients

・1pcs Regular eggplant
・2pcs Tomato
・1/2pc Onion
・1pc Garlic
・2tbsp Olive oil
・1tbsp Caper
・Sea salt to taste
・Basil
・1pc Natto
・Pine nuts
・1tbsp White wine vinegar
・Ground pepper
・Grated parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Cut eggplant into appropriate size, peel and slice onion, chop garlic, dice tomato.
2. Heat up flying pan, add oil then sauté garlic lightly then add eggplant and keep sauté for a while.
3. When eggplant about is cooked, add tomato, caper and wine vinegar then simmer around 10min.
4. When finished cooking, add natto, basil, salt and ground pepper.
5. Cook pasta, and place on the bowl, pour caponata, then top with pine nuts, parmesan cheese.

Jay’s note

In this season, we can see many kind of eggplants in the market. “Regular eggplant” that we call is American one. The most popular in the U.S. It’s big nice shape for gratin or “dengaku”. Dengaku is a Japanese dish, that grilled eggplant with sweet miso coulis (thick sauce).

Otherwise, I personally prefer to use for cooking Japanese eggplant. Now that is available some market (of course in Japanese market). Its more like juicy and tender, also the skin is not tough to bite.

You can deep fry eggplant, if you do not mind to use big amount of oil. I think recipes in the restaurant, basically they go that way. In that way eggplant comes out more juicy and flavorfully.