Eggplant Marinara Pasta

I love eggplant! But as someone who makes this delicious vegetable fairly often, I'm also always looking for new ways to prepare it. While I do love eggplant parmesan, grilled eggplant, stir-fried eggplant, etc, I'm also a fan of diversity. This recipe combined many typical ingredients - tomato sauce, cheese, eggplant, pasta - but managed to combine them in a new and delightful way that provided a different experience for a palette.

I made this on Sunday evening and took a bit throughout the week for lunch (and had some leftover for the weekend still!) but this is easily a main course at dinner as well. Serve it with a salad or your favorite veggie for a relatively simple yet tasty and healthy meal that breaks up the monotony of your routine dishes.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 1 hr 15 min



Eggplant Marinara Pasta
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cubed (1/2")
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1 c onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c white wine
1 tbsp basil (fresh), diced
3/4 tsp (dried) oregano
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
2 can diced tomatoes (no salt added)
1 package whole wheat penne
1 c shredded low-fat mozzarella
1/4 c bread crumbs
1/2 c Parmesan cheese (low fat)

Get your oven pre-heating to 450 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet (or two) with cooking spray and place the eggplant in just a single layer on the sheet(s). If you double up the layers, the eggplant will not roast correctly. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through.

While the eggplant is cooking, you can get started on the rest of the meal. Heat a pan over medium heat. When it's hot, add the olive oil, swirling to coat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook for 7-8 minutes, stirring just often enough to keep from burning. The onion should be browned and soft by the end of the that time, although it doesn't have to be fully cooked.

Add the wine to the pan and let the onion mixture cook until most of the wine has evaporated, stirring a few times to incorporate flavors evenly. Add the basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and diced tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and then cover (or partially cover if it comes to a boil when covered fully) and let it simmer for 20 minutes, stirring a few times throughout that period. By the end of the period some of the excess tomato juice should have simmered off, causing the mixture to thicken slightly.

Add the cooked eggplant to the dish, stir it in, and then remove from the heat.

If you haven't yet, cook the pasta according to directions. When the pasta is done, drain it but keep 1/4 of the cooking liquid. Add that to the eggplant mixture, along with the drained pasta. Stir well until everything is incorporated.

Grease a 13 x 9 glass baking dish with cooking spray. Add half of the eggplant-pasta mixture. Sprinkle evenly with half the mozzarella. Add the rest of the pasta, then sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella. Sprinkle the bread crumbs and Parmesan evenly over the top of everything.

Bake at 450 for 12 minutes. The cheese should have melted and just started to brown. Enjoy!