Eggplant Penne

Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables to cook with. I use it to make dips and stir fry, and love it grilled or oven roasted as a side dish, on pizza and in pasta. This recipe is something I usually make on the weekend as it does take longer than a week night thirty minute meal. I usually batch cook a few dishes on Sunday that take lots of time, to make lunches and dinner time a breeze during a busy work week. This dish is an AWESOME make ahead meal and becomes more flavourful the longer it permeates together in a bowl.  In addition to reheating this meal after work during the week, this dish can also be served as a pasta salad and is a great item to bring as a potluck dish or pack for lunches. Although I am not a vegetarian, I do make 2-3 vegetarian meals per week that can be incorporated into lunches and dinners so we have more vegetables in our diet. This is definitely one of my favourite vegetarian dishes. If you are gluten sensitive you can substitute rice penne noodles and it will still taste DELISH!


Ingredients

500grams penne
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil plus 2 tbsp for garnish
4 eggplants- cut into 1 inch cubes
4 large cloves of garlic- thinly sliced or grated
8 large  ripe vine tomatoes- diced or 796ml can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried chili flakes- optional
1 bunch of both parsley and basil- stems removed an diced and leaves chopped for garnish
Salt and pepper
Feta cheese

Directions

1. Slice the washed eggplant into 1 inch cubes and lay flat on a sheet pan.
2. Sprinkle generously with sea salt. This will extract the bitter moisture from the eggplant. Set aside and let rest for thirty minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, garlic, parsley stems, basil stem, chili flakes and olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper and taste and toss the mixture until well combined. Taste to ensure it is seasoned to your liking, and set mixture aside.
5. Place the eggplant in a sieve or colander and rinse to remove the liquid that was extracted after being sprinkled in sea salt. Shake off any excess water.
6. In a large casserole dish toss together the eggplant and tomato mixture until well incorporated. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
7. Uncover the eggplant and stir the mixture. Place back in the oven for another 30 minutes uncovered. The eggplant should be soft but still be identifiable and not cooked to the point of being a tapenade.
8. Cook the penne pasta according to the package specifications  once the eggplant is 15 minutes from ready. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water just before you drain the noodles.
9. Toss the cooked pasta into the casserole dish with the eggplant and pasta water.
10. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and basil leaves, feta and extra virgin olive oil.
11. Enjoy!

Note:
If you are making this dish for a future meal or potluck add the feta and herbs just before serving the pasta.