When it is raining...

... it is time for soup.

Yesterday we had one of those rainy, dark grey days. On days like that I just want to curl up with a blanket and a book and a nice cup of coffee or tea. Since that was not in the cards for me I had to settle for a nice steamy bowl of soup for dinner.

Wich was more than fine, because I got to use summer-vegetables. And those are so delicious in a soup. My aubergine obsession struck again and I built the soup around a white aubergine and a zucchini.

It turned out really nice and smooth and the gorgonzola as topping added a nice spicey component to the soup.

A lazy dinner...

... with aubergines.
I tried to warn you about my aubergine-obsession....

Sometimes a simple, but still nice pasta dish is all you need. For me, pasta has - and probably always will be- a comfort food. Pretty high on the list are Lasagne and Bolognese. Both of these dishes take quite a while to prepare and cook, at least if you attempt to do them correctly. (Yes there is a correct way of cooking a Bolognese... and it takes time. A lot of it.)

Naturally, I am in love with pasta sauces that take not much longer to cook than it takes to boil the pasta.

So here is my newest addition to the comfort-pasta list:

Aubergine... eggplant... melanzana

Aubergines (or eggplants) are probably my favourite vegetable...Or they were until I learnt that it actually is a fruit.



Still, I love the taste and the variety of recipes you can create with it.
When they are in season in Europe (right now) I am not going a week without using at least one aubergine. Usually they end up in pasta sauces, any vegetable stir fry or fried in a salad.

But my favourite dish hast to be an Aubergine Parmigiana.
Even though I really love this recipe and often recreate it, I worked my way around a lot of the preparation time and made the Parmigiana easier. (Maybe a little less traditional, still delicious)