aubergine and blue cheese pasta with rocket

This is a dish I've made a couple of times before, with some variations. I didn't have any outside inspiration for it - it was just the production of a random night in the kitchen.

When I first mentioned this dish I'd designed to a colleague, her first reaction was 'aubergines with blue cheese - ugh!' I was taken aback - to me it sounds excellent. Blue cheese is a strong flavor, and it pairs well with other vegetables - mushrooms and spinach, for example.

An excellent weeknight meal, it's fast and it's healthy. To my husband, it 'tastes too good to be healthy,' which is ideal!

Just because I'm trying to eat healthily doesn't mean I shouldn't get to taste the creamy blue cheese and the slippery texture of the roasted aubergine. It's PORTION SIZE that's key here: while most of us are used to gigantic bowls of pasta, it's not necessary to the success of the dish or the capacity of our stomachs.

Bulk this dish out with lovely peppery rocket - or as much aubergine as you'd like. The only things to limit are the pasta and the cheese. Here's how:

-use wholewheat pasta. (you can use penne, spaghetti, fusilli, they all work well)

-try blue vinney cheese. (this is a regional dorset blue cheese that naturally has 1/3 less fat than stilton.)

-use a spray olive oil. (you often will never need as much olive oil as recipes call for)

A central tenet of my healthy cooking: always try reduced fat options. Some low-fat alternatives taste revolting, but reduced fat is a good compromise.

(serves 2)
200 g aubergine (1/2 of a large one), chunkily diced
1 pack of rocket (or as much as you'd like)
300 g wholemeal penne (100 g for me, but 200g for the husband)
40 g sprays of olive oil
approx 100 g blue vinney cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C. Dice the aubergine and put into a foil-lined roasting tin. Spray with 1/2 of olive oil spray. Roast for approximately 30-40 minutes, spraying more as necessary throughout.

With have about 10 minutes left of roasting to go, boil the pasta. Since I want to make sure I only have a specific amount of pasta, I sometimes boil it separately than the rest after I weigh my portion out. Otherwise, if it's an easy ratio to figure out, I can boil it all together and then separately after (i.e., 1 scoop for me, 2 scoops for him, 1 scoop for me, 2 scoops for him, etc).

Drain the pasta. Return to two separate pots for finishing. Fold in the rocket - the heat of the pasta will soften it, so there's no need to cook it. Scoop the aubergine into the bowls from the roasting tin, splitting evenly between the two bowls. Add the cheese to the pasta. For me, I keep it to 50 g only. Crumble and mix into the pasta. For him, I don't bother weighing it out. I add a little olive oil to his if it seems like it needs it.
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This dish is easily adaptable - if he decides he wants more cheese, it's easily added without much fuss. If I want more rocket, there's just no problem. These types of meals are crucial when 1/2 of the household is watching what it eats - and that 1/2 is the one doing the cooking.

For me, according to the WLR database, the dish is 525 calories - very low cal. But it's so easily bulked up - if I need more pasta, I can have it. On its own, though, it's an extremely suitable meal.