Timballo Rules, Okay!

And I speak to Joe Mackertich, editor of Time Out

Happy July. Long time, no recipe! At least it feels like it anyway. This month offers us summer vegetables by the box-load so I am beginning with my favourite of all the savoury cakes: Timballo. If you’re never made a Timballo, it’s Italy’s own spaghetti hoop pasta bake and it RULES. Smoked mozzarella is involved, and so too are many slices of fried aubergine. A piece of this will improve your day, week, or even your year. In The Interviews I’m shooting the breeze with the one and only Joe Mackertich, the editor of Time Out London and all round lovely guy.

If there were ever a dish for a cooler Summer’s day (a few of which my obsession with the weather tells me we have in our future – sorry about it), it’s Timballo. It’s the king of aubergine dishes, if you ask me, because well… it’s a cake! And it also combines most of my favourite things: tomato sauce, aubergines, pasta (spaghetti hoops!), cheese (3 kinds!), and basil. I don’t know what else you need?

Some recipes for Timballo include slices of ham, peas or chopped up boiled egg. And while all of those things please me on other occasions, here I believe they detract from this dish’s true star: aubergine. Long time followers of WTYCT may know that I am unable to decide how I pronounce aubergine. 8 times out of 10 I pronounce it oar-bagine (think NE England); 2 times out of 10 oh-bagine (think French person). I would like you to not judge me for this. This information has little relevance to the recipe at hand.

It would please me greatly if you make this recipe once this Summer. When aubergines are cheap, it just makes sense. Turning a Timballo out from a loose-bottom or spring-form cake tin is one of the most life-affirming joys the kitchen can bestow on a cook. I mean it.