Diet? What diet?

So here I am again in Contrary Towers kitchen. We'd already run round the local delicatessen like a pair of idiots alternatively laughing and moaning at the women's cycling shoes, garden hose and fishing rods and the paucity of the vegetables. You can't have it all but I did see courgettes that the ditzy one had missed previously.

An aubergine today

Anyway tonight's diet delight was a spicy melanzane alla parmigiana alla Clare. If you're interested this is what I did.

Take a nice shiny happy aubergine and whilst it's not looking, slice into rounds about a centimetre thick, brush with oil and then bake in a hot oven til tender. It will love that.

Chop the semi dessicated remains of an onion, half a dodgy looking pepper and 4 growing garlic cloves and fry in a spot of oil til soft/safe to eat. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a green oxo, pinch of sugar, pepper, oregano and simmer until it looks done. If you like, add a perky new chili to liven it up a bit. Blitz into a nice sauce.

Put a quarter of the sauce in two shallow bake dishes, add a layer of aubergine, then top with the rest of the tomato sauce. Nestle some thin slices of mozzarella within the sauce, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and breadcrumbs and bake until crisp, bubbly and crispy. Throw over some green herbs for artistic effect.

Serve up one dish between two and save the rest for lunch tomorrow.

Diet? What diet?

Addendum: for ultimate flatmate snorkage and delight, cover the spare bake tightly with clingfilm and then giggle madly as the static causes the breadcrumbs to come alive and attack the plastic. Utter madness.