Pasta with eggplant and homemade tomato sauce

We are back to posting on tuesdays and because it’s been a while, I thought… why not post another pasta recipe? I think pasta and rice are the two things that I could eat every day (and in fact, I do) and not be even bothered. Simple pasta is good but every now and then it’s great to do a bit more, to go a bit beyond and do things from scratch or make a sauce that got a lot of love. That’s how I thought of making this pasta with eggplant recipe, it has tons of love, tons of yummy flavors and a lot of pasta (and ricotta cheese). 

Ingredients to make this pasta with eggplant recipe

The ingredient list is pretty easy and to be honest, you can probably guess what we are going to be cooking with by reading the name of the recipe:

• Pasta: I personally enjoy “long type” pasta for these type of sauces, it makes everything easier to mix.
• Eggplants
• Tomato sauce ingredients:
  • Canned tomatoes
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Thyme
  • Oregano
  • Pepper
  • Chili flakes
  • Butter
• Ricotta cheese
• Olive oil
• Some salt

Alternatives to this pasta with eggplant recipe

Tofucado could alternatively be named tofu pasta because I swear there are more pasta recipes than avocado ones in this blog. Because I have plenty of them and most importantly, there is a section called pasta that mentions them all. So go there to check all of them out but my personal favorites are :

• kimchi mac & cheese
• pumpkin creamy pasta
• my go-to vegan bolognese

Pasta with eggplant / Pasta alla norma

Course: LunchCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 2-3 medium sized eggplants

• 1 onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• 1 can of tomatoes (400g)

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp thyme

• 2 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp parsley

• 1 tsp chili flakes (optional)

• Salt & pepper to your taste

• 2 large tbsp of ricotta cheese

• 2 portions of pasta (this amount of sauce will make enough for 2 generous pasta dishes and a small one or three normal sized dishes)

Directions

• Cut the eggplant in big chunks. Dice the onion and press the garlic. 
• In a pan, reheat some olive oil. When hot, add the egg plant chunks and cook it at high temperature for five minutes. Then turn the heat down and stir every now and then. The eggplant has to be roasted on the outside and tender on the inside. You achieve this by cooking it at high temp at first then letting it tender at medium-low heat. I cooked my eggplant for 25 minutes total. 
• While the eggplant is cooking, let’s make the sauce. in a pot, melt some butter. When hot, add the garlic and onion and cook for 7 minutes. 
• Add the canned tomatoes and seasoning. 
• Bring to a boil then simmer for at least 25 minutes.
  When done, mix both the sauce and the eggplant together and simmer for 5 more minutes.  
• Boil pasta following the package instructions
• In a pot, mix 1 pasta serving with enough sauce and add in the ricotta. Mix everything and enjoy !

Recipe Video