As I’ve never really cooked with aubergine before, I thought I’d challenge myself to make something with it. This suddenly became an even greater challenge when my boyfriend confessed he didn’t really like aubergine – and of course this was after we’d already bought it! Luckily he loved it in the end – I hope you do too!

Ingredients

• 1 aubergine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Handful cherry tomatoes
• ½ a yellow pepper
• ½ an orange pepper
• Pesto
• Mature cheddar or mozzarella cheese

How to make it…

Start by roasting the aubergine. Slice the aubergine – ideally in more even sizes than I managed! Spread these out in a roasting dish, layering in places if necessary. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top of the aubergine slices and season with salt and pepper. Pop into an oven preheated to 180°C and roast for around 25-30 minutes.

Note: I’ve discovered a lot of people recommend preparing the aubergine before you cook it by sprinkling it with salt, leaving it for 30 minutes and then rinsing the salt off. Supposedly this gets rid of some of the bitterness. I found it tasted fine even without it, but I’m going to try this next time and compare the results.

Take the roasting dish out of the oven. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and distribute evenly around the dish. Chop the yellow and orange pepper and spread these out as well. Then take the pesto and dollop a little here and there on the aubergine slices. Remember – a little goes a long way with this stuff so you don’t need too much. Finally, sprinkle a handful of cheese over the whole thing. I used around 75g but you can use more or less depending on your tastes!

Put the dish back in the oven for another five minutes or so until the cheese has melted. As there’s so much flavour in this dish already, I’d suggest serving it with something fairly neutral, such as wholemeal pasta or a crusty baguette with olive oil for dipping.

You can really experiment with the flavours here – try adding tomato puree or passata along with the pesto, or add other veggies to make the dish even more colourful, such as green peppers or courgettes. But there are so many flavours here already that you don’t have to change a thing unless you want to!