Linguine with Chicken & Eggplant

Linguine with chicken and Japanese eggplant is the kind of grill-pasta hybrid that works best when you treat the cheese like a sauce. Hot pasta straight from the pot meets a generous handful of Romano and a slick of olive oil, and the residual heat melts the cheese into a glossy coating that grabs every herb and grilled morsel.

Grilling the chicken and eggplant is what gives this dish its character. The smoky char on Japanese eggplant (which has thinner skin and fewer seeds than globe eggplant) plays beautifully against the herby fresh basil, parsley, and minced garlic. Charred chicken breast cubes add savory protein without weighing things down.

Speed matters at the toss. Hot pasta plus oil plus cheese plus herbs needs to come together in under a minute, before the pasta cools and the cheese seizes into clumps instead of melting smoothly.

Pro Tips

• Keep the pasta in its hot cooking water until you’re ready to drain. Cooled, drained pasta won’t melt the cheese and you’ll end up with cheese chunks instead of a glossy sauce.
• Drain the pasta but don’t rinse. The starch on the noodles is what helps the cheese cling, and rinsing washes it away.
• Cut the chicken and eggplant into similar-sized bite pieces so each forkful gets balanced. Uneven pieces mean some bites are all chicken, others all veg.
• Season the chicken and eggplant well before grilling. Both ingredients absorb seasoning poorly after they’re cooked.

Variations

• Skip the optional black olives and green onions for a purist, simpler dish (per the recipe’s own note about Patty being a purist).
• Use Pecorino Romano for a sharper, saltier punch than regular Romano.
• Substitute grilled zucchini for the eggplant if it’s not in season.

A glass of Chianti and a green salad rounds this into a complete meal.