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To smoke the aubergine, prick the aubergines a couple of times with a knife or fork. Blacken the aubergines over a barbeque, or gas hob, turning regularly until completely charred.
Place in a bowl and cover with lid, let the aubergine cool down and steam to help the skins fall over.
When cooler enough to handle, slit the aubergines lengthways and scoop out the flesh. Finely chop the flesh into an aubergine like paste.
For the walnuts, soak over night. Drain then pop in a pan, cover with water and bring to a boil then simmer. Cook for 30 mins to 2 hours depending on how much time you have or how soft you want the walnuts.
Then remove from pan, drain, and pulse the walnuts in a blender into small crumbs.
For the ragu, cook down the onions, celery, and carrots in a generous spoon of olive oil until onions are brown.
Then add garlic, bay leaves, cover with red wine, bring pan to a boil and cook until wine reduces by half the volume.
Then add tomato paste, smoked aubergines, blended walnuts followed by tomato passata.
Season generously with salt and some cracked black pepper.
Add in dried lentils and vegetable stock cube and water (only add water if you are using dried lentils!).
Place a lid on top and cook down until lentils are soft, anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.