One of my preferred shapes of pasta is mezze maniche – literally half or short sleeves. I still have to concentrate when I say it though – med-zay man-e-kay – which, typed here, seems as much a name for a rapper as a dried pasta shape. Half the length of another favourite – tubular, ridged rigatoni – the short sleeves of mezze maniche, with their five-pence diameter, are just the thing for catching and hiding chunks: a cube of pancetta, a tip of asparagus, a bit of broccoli floret, a chunk of fried aubergine.

It is chunks of aubergine, also courgette, red pepper and mozzarella, hiding for this week’s recipe: pasta di mezz’estate, or midsummer pasta. It could just as easily be called middle-of-the-summer-holidays, late August or early September pasta, given the summer we have all shared and the subsequent abundance of summer vegetables that looks set to roll on.

In the introduction to the recipe in their brilliant book Sapori del Sud, Rita and Mariano Pane describe pasta di mezz’estate as “a stupendous palette of Caravaggio’s colours”, which sounds poncy when I write it, but just right in their words. Rita is right: they are Caravaggio’s colours – or maybe Prince’s – a purple two-piece, white ruffed shirt and a raspberry beret. It is a recipe from Campania, so unsurprisingly the vegetables – a large aubergine, red pepper and a couple of courgettes – are diced and fried until golden in a good inch of olive oil. Incidentally, this means they absorb less oil than a shallow fry. It is this immersion in olive oil that gives the vegetables a rich, almost velvety texture and flavour – a defining one in traditional southern Italian food.

I take an almost perverse pleasure in frying when the weather is hot, in the layers of heat and stream of sweat, a habit possibly begun when we fried an egg on the bonnet of Dad’s Rover 100 in 1989. Alternatively, you could roast the diced vegetables in the oven; just be generous with the oil and salt. The parmesan acts much the same way as with tagliatelle and rich bolognese sauce, a sort of culinary glue, melting and melding everything together.

The idea of there being pasta shape/sauce rules or official combinations is mismatched with the anarchic joy of food, especially if it is used as a sort of one-upmanship. But there is tradition – pairings that work or have been repeated so often they have taken root: a tangle of spaghetti with clams, corkscrew twists of trofie for pesto, a tube of macaroni, rigatoni or mezze maniche for concealing pieces of aubergine and mozzarella. There is also what you like and have in the cupboard.

Whatever pasta you use, pasta di mezz’estate with its glistening vegetables, tomato sheen, melting mozzarella, all united by parmesan and reeking of basil, is a gorgeous, generous dish for a crowd, especially on a warm day, when sunny flavours are called for – salad/watermelon/granita and other icy jolts can come after.

Pasta di mezz’estate – midsummer pasta

Mezze maniche with chunks of aubergine, courgette, red pepper and mozzarella. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The Guardian

1 large aubergine

1 red pepper

2 courgettes

Olive or vegetable oil, for frying

2 large ripe tomatoes

4 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

100g parmesan, grated

100g mozzarella, diced

Ripped leaves from 1 big sprig of basil

500g pasta: penne, mezze maniche, fusilli

Bring a large pan of water to a boil for the pasta. Dice the aubergine, pepper and courgette into 1cm cubes. Pour enough oil into a deep, medium-sized frying pan for it to come an inch up the sides and heat until hot. Working in batches, fry the diced vegetables in the oil until soft and golden, then blot on kitchen towel and keep warm. Tip the oil from the pan.



Plunge the tomatoes into the almost boiling water for a minute, lift out with a slotted spoon then refresh under cold water, at which point the skins should slip off. Roughly chop the tomatoes.

Put the frying pan back on the heat with four tablespoons of new oil and the garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, add the chopped tomatoes and cook until soft and saucy – about 10 minutes.

Once the water is boiling, add salt, stir, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Once the pasta is ready, drain and tip into the tomato pan and toss.

Tip the pasta and sauce into a large bowl, add the fried vegetables, parmesan, mozzarella and ripped basil, toss thoroughly and serve.