Monday, August 9, 2010

Eggplant and Tomato Pasta

Weekday meals for me are almost always easy. Unless I'm in the mood to cook up a storm (which usually only happens on the weekends) dinners have to take less than 45 minutes to prepare, from cutting board to plate. Not because I don't enjoy cooking, but because on weekdays I want to get home from work, eat dinner, and then relax.

This dish was one of those awesome meals that you can make in about 30 minutes. Yay!


I saw this severely misshapen eggplant at the farmers market and I had to have him. I mean, who else would buy him and truly appreciate all of the weird nooks and crannies in his purple skin? To me, he looked like the people on Wall-E.

Eggplant and Tomato Pasta


1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium eggplant, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup red wine
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-3/4 lb penne

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add eggplant to the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally until eggplant are cooked and slightly reduced in size. Add tomatoes to the pan and stir to combine. Next, slowly pour the wine into the pan and cook to reduce slightly, about 1-2 minutes. Add basil, parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to the sauce, stir and cover. Reduce heat to medium low and let sauce simmer for 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add pasta to the sauce. Stir to combine. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

Enjoy!

7 comments:

  1. Phil and I made this last night and it was very yummy. We substituted marinara sauce for tomatoes and port for red wine since that's what we had on hand. We also didn't have fresh basil leaves but added dried ones. Also there was basil in the marinara sauce. Anyway we really enjoyed the meal so thanks for the recipe Val! Great way to use an eggplant.

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  2. Yay! I'm so glad you liked it!

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  3. yum! I will have to make this..for myself since probably no one else in the house will. maybe neil would eat it because he loves me.. :)

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  4. i made this tonight with white wine because we didn't have red. I ate it straight up, no pasta. it was delicious. thanks for posting it! We had eggplant and onion and tomato that needed to be used up!

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  5. Ooo that would be good even without the pasta. I'm in love with anything involving eggplant. It's one of my favorite vegetables! I'm glad you liked it!

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  6. Val where are you getting these recipes from ? Or are you just making them up, you genius you.

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  7. If I don't post a source, usually right below the title of the recipe, then I made it up. Usually I cook from recipes, but this one I was just trying to use up a bunch of stuff in our fridge. Deliciousness resulted!

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