Food You Can Eat: Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant

First things first:  I gave some of our crop away this week because, holy shit I’m so fucking sick of this goddamned vegetable.  But there are still plenty left, so I still have to find new and interesting ways to eat this garbage.

A caveat before we get started:  The recipe assumes the sauce is made from scratch, but why would I do that when I have several jars of canned sauce from this year’s garden?

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Eggplant, thinly sliced

1 Lb. Rigatoni pasta, or penne pasta

Kosher salt

Extra virgin olive oil

1 Sm. Onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Lb. Ground Beef, or Ground Turkey or Italian Sausage

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Rosemary

½ tsp Pepper

26 Oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes

15 Oz. Tomato Sauce

8 Oz. Mozzarella, sliced

Set a pot of water to boil for your pasta.  Place eggplant slices on a large tray. Sprinkle generously with salt and set aside for twenty minutes or so to sweat out any bitterness. Using a paper towel, pat the eggplant dry and wipe any excess salt.

Spray or brush the eggplant generously with extra virgin olive oil. Place on top rack of heated oven to broil for 4-5 minutes or so, watching very carefully. The eggplant should “wilt” and brown. Remove from heat and set aside.  

By now your water should be ready so cook your pasta until just past al dente.  While the pasta is cooking, heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large deeper pan. Cook the onions over medium-high heat until translucent, about three minutes, tossing regularly. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, again tossing regularly. Add the meat and spices, and season with salt and pepper. Using a wooden spoon, break the meat up into smaller pieces.  Continue to stir until the meat is fully cooked through and has browned.  Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer for fifteen minutes or so. Carefully taste and adjust salt, if needed add more salt.

Spoon a little bit of the meat sauce to cover the bottom of a large 14 x 10 x 3 deep baking dish.  Add about half of the pasta. Assemble the broiled eggplant on top.

Add half the meat sauce. Now add the remaining pasta and top with the remaining meat sauce. Finally, assemble mozzarella slices on top.

Place the rigatoni dish on the middle rack of your heated oven. Bake for twenty to twenty five minutes at 375 degrees.

I couldn’t even taste the eggplant, which means this is perfect.