Ravia

Name: Ravia
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: handful of basil leaves, finely chopped; grated zest of 1 lemon; drizzle of olive oil; handful of pine nuts; 1 each of roasted red and yellow pepper, skinned, seeded and finely chopped; 150 g (5½ oz) ricotta cheese; 1 quantity mushroom duxelles; 1 garlic clove, finely chopped; 1 banana shallot, or 2–3 ordinary shallots, roughly chopped; 1 recipe quantity polenta triangles, to serve; salt and black pepper; ½ butternut squash, peeled and diced; a little olive oil; 12 baby aubergines; large handful of basil leaves, chopped; 75 g (2¾ oz) Parmesan, freshly grated; 1 small courgette, finely chopped; 1 x 200 g can chopped tomatoes; 1 small aubergine, finely chopped; 1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped; 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 250 g (9 oz) spinach leaves; 55 g (2 oz) soft rindless goat’s cheese; handful of chives, finely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook

By Adrian Daniel and Michael Daniel

Published 2004

About

An Italian chef who worked for us christened this “ravia”, which we assumed to mean “baby aubergines”. We’ve since learned that in fact the name probably describes the presentation which, with its polenta “spokes”, looks wheel-like, and “ravia” is a wheel for a mille miglia racing car.

Ingredients

12 baby aubergines
a little olive oil
salt and black pepper

Europe
Italy
Main course
Vegetarian
Mediterranean

Method

To prepare the aubergines, Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Cut off a slice from the rounded ends of the aubergines so they will sit upright with the stalk uppermost. Cut off the stalk end at the top, and then using a melon bailer, scrape out the flesh f