Eggplant, tomatoes, and olives join forces for a comforting, hearty sauce for pasta. This recipe is full of flavor and makes for a great vegetarian or vegan meal.
Over the summer I was fortunate enough to get invited to stay at a friend’s house in North Carolina for a bit so that I could escape the confines of my New York City apartment during the pandemic. There are lots of great things that came out of my stay there, and one of them is this recipe.
There were three of us altogether: a fellow culinary school graduate who loves to cook as much as I do and a kitchen novice that primarily was responsible for the drinks. We mostly fended for ourselves for breakfast and lunch, but always ate dinner together. There were certainly many days when dinner was enjoyed dining at a restaurant outdoors or picked up something to go, but we also had a number of delicious meals at home that we prepared ourselves.
With one of my housemates sticking to a mostly vegetarian diet, this is one of the recipes that I came up with one of those nights. This pasta with eggplant, tomato, and olive sauce is one that vegetarians and meat eaters alike will enjoy. And as a bonus, it’s even vegan-friendly if you don’t serve it with Parmesan or use a non-dairy cheese.
In making it the first time, I literally just raided the fridge and pantry to see what I could throw together. A little bit of this, a spoonful of that. That by-the-seat-of-your-pants cooking that I love but rarely give myself the freedom to do should I want to share my creation with you. Well, after tasting it, we were all quite pleased with the results. So off I went to try to recreate (and measure) the magic so that I could post it here for you to make for yourself.
I remember sharing a picture of it back then on social media and someone said that I was making pasta alla norma, the classic Italian pasta dish with eggplant and tomatoes. While this recipe has all of those things, it’s missing the characteristic ricotta salata to grant it that name. Then in doing research to type up this post, it seemed like the sauce was close to eggplant puttanesca because of the olives, but a classic puttanesca usually has capers included too. So not quite the one, nor is it really the other. Hence the long title for this recipe. (However, I do like to think of this recipe as what would happen if pasta alla norma and puttanesca had a baby.)
My first iteration used up all of the bucatini in the house, which I think to be the best of the long pasta shapes, so I instead used some long fusilli from the pantry in my recreation (and photos). And while any shape in reality works just fine, bucatini is my pasta of choice for this particular dish.
Pasta with Eggplant, Tomato & Olive Sauce
Eggplant, tomatoes, and olives join forces for a comforting, hearty sauce for pasta. This recipe is full of flavor and makes for a great vegetarian or vegan meal.
Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- Extra-virgin olive, as needed (I used 3/4 cup)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning blend
- 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 small (1 1/2 pounds) Italian eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1/2 cup sliced Kalamata olives
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup red wine
- One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves (optional)
- 1 pound long pasta, such as bucatini
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- Set a large pot of water with some salt on the stove to bring to a boil for the pasta.
- Meanwhile, place a large skillet or other pan over medium heat with some oil; add the onion, black pepper, and some salt and cook until the onion starts to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more.
- Add the eggplant and olives, season with salt, and cook, stirring regularly and adding more oil as needed, until the eggplant has softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes more. Deglaze with the red wine, scraping up any stuck on bits from the bottom of the pan and stirring it all together.
- Add the crushed tomatoes to the eggplant (swish about 1/2 cup water around the can and add that to the skillet to to make sure you get all of the tomatoes) and let simmer gently, stirring regularly, for 15 minutes. Add in the fresh oregano, if using, for the last minute or 2 of cooking.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the salted boiling water until just shy of al dente. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta.
- Mix the pasta into the sauce along with some of the reserved pasta cooking water (about 1/4 cup) and let it all cook together until the pasta is al dente, 1 to 2 minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Serve with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.
And there we have it folks. This is my last recipe here for the foreseeable future. Thanks for following along. And don’t worry, this website will stay up so that you can revisit and (re-cook) all of your favorite recipes from The Hungry Hutch.
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