Aubergine sauce for pasta, with capsicum, tomato and basil

Marcella Cucina. Serves 4. 14 steps

3 tablespoons olive oil			Cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, without letting it become coloured	Cover, cook at a gentle steady simmer 40 minutes. If the cooking juices dry up, add more wine; but not too much, since there should be no water left at the end
3 cloves garlic	peeled, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon dried chopped chilli
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley			Stir in, cook over low heat until soft
75g onion	thinly sliced
2 yellow and orange peppers	peel, cut into thin strips		Add, cook until somewhat tender
850g aubergines	Halve lengthways. If seeds are dark, scoop out. Cut into pieces 8x5x2 cm.	Sprinkle, toss, leave to drain 45 minutes; rinse, pat dry	Mix in
salt
180g canned tomatoes with juice	chopped
200ml white wine
6 large basil leaves	torn by hand
6 green olives	sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons capers

Serve with boxed dry pasta, preferably a short tubular shape. Toss pasta with a tablespoon of oil, then with sauce.

The sauce can be prepared a day in advance, and reheated gently but thoroughly.

When used to make a pasta sauce, aubergine is a vegetable that can spring surprises, not all of them aggreable. The flavour can swing from bitterness to cloying greasiness. The aubergines in this recipe are stewed in tomatoes. The result is authoritatively fragrant and spicy, yet delivers a good measure of that lively sweetness that is the aubergine's most winning feature.