Tonight I am making one of my DH's favorite pasta dishes. Here's the recipe:
Eggplant pasta
1 large eggplant, peeled, diced into 1/2 inch cubes, heavily salted and drained in a colander for one hour
1 28. oz can tomatoes (I like muir glen best)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, or more to taste
salt and pepper to taste
pasta
chopped basil and parmesean cheese for serving
FYI, the reason you want to salt the eggplant is to draw out the bitter juices. After it has drained for one hour, rinse well to remove the salt, then dump into a clean kitchen towel. Wring the towel to extract as much liquid as possible.
In a large saute pan, heat about 4 tbsp. olive oil until quite hot but not smoking. Saute the eggplant in the oil until golden brown and cooked through, then remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil behind.
In the leftover oil, saute the garlic and onion until tender. Add the can of tomatoes and their juices, breaking up the tomatoes with your hands. Add the eggplant, oregano and red pepper flakes, and then simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes, or until it has reached a desirable consistency for you. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, cook your pasta until al dente, then toss the pasta with the sauce and the basil, and serve, passing parmesean cheese at the table.
The sauce recipe makes enough to coat at least 1 lb. of pasta--maybe 1 1/2 lbs.
Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow so I can have a really good dinner.
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