Hugh's Parmigiana

My favourite cookbook at the moment is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg everyday. Famously carniverous, Hugh has made the monumnetal decision to eat far less meat and this book (and accompanying TV series) is the result of his endeavours. The book is beautiful - my cleaner took one look at it yesterday and rushed out to buy herself a copy. You just want to cook and grow everything within.

Sadly, my husband doesn't consider a meal without either fish or meat to be dinner so it will be some time before I have cooked my way through the pages. The Aubergine Parmigiana was made yesterday because my one-time colleague and long term friend Daniel was paying a Christmas visit. Daniel loves his food and he especially loves aubergines.

It is a very good recipe. The only change I made was to use 3 rather than 4 tins of tomatoes. I salted the aubergines as instructed - still not sure whether that was necessary but hey ho. It was very tasty indeed and Daniel loved it. I served it with olive ciabbata and a green salad.

For dessert we munched our way through a tray of baklava given me by my lovely friend Lulu. It was a perfect lunch. And it is Christmas after all.

Chris had Tuna pasta bake . . . .