Eggplant, Tomatoes and Just a Bit of Pasta

Instead of roasting in the oven, we cut up the eggplant and put it in a screened "wok" and roasted it on the grill with some quartered onion and garlic. Then added this to the recipe as instructed. I used gluten-free chickpea pasta. Sinfully delicious.

A great dish, but there's absolutely no need for the butter - - either in terms of the taste or its fat.

Any thoughts on adding a bit of anchovy butter?

"Melissa makes America grate again!" .... from Technic Ally

That is my quote of the weekend! The Cheese Industry needs to jump all over this one and use "Make America Grate Again!" as their new catchy slogan.

And a tasty recipe to boot.

We tried this recipe tonight to use up backyard grown heirloom tomatoes. It went well but the tomatoes were so juicy that it would have been better if we had drained them in a sieve to get the pulp. The reduced sauce was too soupy. Otherwise a great way to use up summer tomatoes and eggplant. A bit spice, but that's easily adjusted. And not too complicated.

Would this recipe work without the eggplant?

We've been consuming our garden veggies all summer long, but use simpler recipes. No need to bake eggplant separately in the oven; we slice up fresh tomatoes, onions, eggplant, zucchini, string beans and potato slices; add garlic, parsley, basil and a smattering of salt and pepper, but don't forget to put the olive oil in the pan first. All combined in the same pot, this is a vegetable dish that can be served without accompaniment like pasta; a hunk of home-baked Italian bread is all that's needed. Just like our Italian Grandmother used to make.

Our daughter was driving in from Arizona for Labor Day. She's a vegetarian. I saw this recipe and realized that we had all of the ingredients, including heirloom tomatoes and eggplant, growing in our garden. Needless to say this was a wonderful meal. We all enjoyed it. Our only change was to add some fresh red Thai pepper from the garden. Actually, having ingredients that are less than an hour old makes almost any dish successful, but this one even moreso.

Melissa makes America grate again!