Pasta Salad With Feta Cheese, Eggplant and Cashew Nuts

This Mediterranean recipe is from one of those "special edition" recipe magazines that are often issued at holiday times. I made it for a family gathering at a vegetarian buffet type meal and it has been a hit ever since. Try to use up on same day, the fresh mint is a "must", it is great to eat even with the pasta and eggplant still warm...

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 2  eggplants (diced)
• 250  g penne pasta (or whatever you have available!)
• 3⁄4 cup olive oil
• 4  tablespoons  balsamic vinegar
• 3  garlic cloves, crushed
• 1  cup  of freshly chopped mint leaf
•  salt
•  white pepper
• 250  g feta cheese, grated coarsely
• 100  g unsalted dry-roasted cashews

Directions

1. Soak cubed eggplant in cold salted water (around 2 tbsp salt to ½ litre of water) for about ½ hour.
2. Drain, rinse and dry off on a clean tea towel.
3. Heat some oil in a chip pan and deep fry the cubes until golden, remove and drain on paper kitchen towels (or old newspaper.) Place in large bowl.
4. Cook pasta as per instructions, drain ,rinse and add to eggplant.
5. Mix (you can shake in an empty jar) o.oil, B.vinegar, garlic, mint, salt and white pepper to taste –(be careful with the salt as eggplant was soaked and cheese is generally salty too).
6. Pour over the pasta mixture and mix carefully and thoroughly.
7. Grate the cheese over the top and sprinkle the toasted cashew nuts on top (don’t dismiss the nuts-they add the punch to this dish!).
8. Bon apetite.