Food You Can Eat – Pasta With Eggplant Sicilian Style

I first saw this recipe on the cover of Bon Appetit or some cooking magazine that I eventually lost in a misguided Kondoing effort. One of a handful of recipes from BA that I actually make, it is delicious. “The Complete Book of Pasta” by Jack Denton Scott (JDS), has a similar recipe but he tarts it up, it really should be simplicity itself. Below is the recipe as I actually made it followed by the JDS recipe for the over achievers. You could make this without anchovies but you need something salty/briny like kalamata olives, capers, vegetarian worcestershire sauce etc. I think mushrooms would also be a fine addition.

Sedevilc’s Easy Pasta With Eggplant. I got home from the vaccine clinic a bit before noon and was ready to eat before the Yankees game started at 1:05. I used bowties, they are pretty and you can eat them with a spoon. Spoons are for lazy eaters, I am a lazy eater.

Olive oil, to coat the bottom of the pan
2 eggplants, cubed
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
6 anchovy fillets, the salt packed kind, soaked in water and spines removed
That leftover quart of marinara sauce that Misfits Market sent instead of meusli, or a similar quantity of crushed stewed tomato or tomato puree
Salt
Pepper
Chili flakes
I pound pasta of your choice

Put water on to boil for the pasta. To a big frying pan add the olive oil and the eggplant, after a few minutes add the minced garlic. Saute until the eggplant is softening and browning, clear a little space in the pan and add the anchovies, stirring until they disintegrate. Add the tomato. I used a leftover jar of marinara thinned down with some water, about 4 cups. Stir, scraping up the eggplant bits that stuck to the frying pan. Taste. Depending on your anchovies you may need more salt. Add pepper and chili pepper flakes. Let the sauce simmer while you tend to the pasta. The pasta water should be boiling by now, cook the pasta. When the pasta is done and the eggplant is done, soft and translucent-y, the sauce is done, drain and dump the pasta into the sauce in the frying pan and mix together. Add a little pasta water if it looks dry. Serve it topped with grated cheese or extra olive oil, capers if you used them, fresh basil if you feel fancy. Super good.

Pasta with Eggplant Sicilian Style, from The Complete Book of Pasta by Jack Denton Scott

3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 eggplant, peeled and cubed
½ small chili pepper, diced
1 sweet red pepper, diced
2 Tablespoons minced parsley
Liberal amount of milled black pepper
½ tsp salt
8 cups (two 2 pound cans Italian plum tomatoes, put through a food mill)
6 anchovy fillets, drained and minced
1 pound perciatelli

Heat oil; saute garlic in it until brown, then discard garlic. Add eggplant cubes, peppers, parsley, salt and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered, stirring often. Blend in tomatoes; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, or until sauce is smooth and thickened. Stir in anchovies and simmer another 10 minutes. Cook perciatelli al dente; place in a large hot bowl, pour in half of the sauce, and toss well with wooden forks. Serve immediately in hot rimmed soup bowls with the remaining sauce lavishly spooned atop. Serves 6.

Bitchy critiques from someone incapable of following direction and a massive compulsion to question everything: Why are we peeling the eggplant? Skip it, it’s stupid unless you want to sneak eggplant into someone. I quite enjoy the contrast of colors with the skin on. Fishing out garlic, who is this person? A food mill? No. Crush those tomatoes in your hand, it feels good, like victory. Sorry, but eggplant cubes, peppers, parsley, salt and pepper will not ‘simmer’ without liquid. Perciatelli is a fancy name for macaroni, cannot eat with spoon, elusive, annoyingly slithery, do not recommend. Why dirty more utensils, leave it in the frying pan and forget the wooden forks. LOL, hang on while I heat my bowls. ‘Lavishly spooned atop’ should only apply to whipped cream.