Eggplant Parmesan Pasta

Frying eggplant on the stove absorbs too much olive oil. Lidia Bastianich salts the cubed eggplant and lets it drain. It's the only way to get the bitterness. Once it is dried on paper towels, she tosses it with far less olive oil and roasts it in the oven. The eggplant that emerges is less oily, doesn't break down as fast as on top of the stove, and has a lovely flavor with the pasta and cheese. A little more work, but a big payoff in terms of texture and taste.

add a healthy amount of anchovy paste (I like Cento best) thank me later

Kept looking at the recipe to see if I was missing something as tasted bland even toward the end. Could do with more of most everything except tomato and eggplant. More onion, garlic, oregano, and bunch of salt next time.

I'd recommend making the pasta and sauce as listed (be sure to add plenty of salt to eggplant mixture), but don't cook the breadcrumbs in oil. Put the eggplant/pasta mix in baking pan, put breadcrumbs, parm, and mozzarella on top and bake. Otherwise, this was bland, and the oiled breadcrumbs did not taste good.

I roast eggplant (diced) with salt and olive oil in the oven at 425 for about 15 to 20 minutes instead of pan frying until tender (so it isn't oily or mushy.) Adding diced red bell pepper and zucchini would add flavor. I would skip frying the panko as well as suggested below.

I have made a variation of this for years. To give it more punch, I add anchovies (or paste) to the olive oil, and I throw in Kalamata olives and some capers toward the end. It is one of our favorite pasta dishes.

I frequently make something like this, but include zucchini and bell pepper along with the eggplant, and some red wine, and call it "ratatouille". Also works well with goat cheese instead of the fresh mozzarella. It's important to make sure the eggplant is really soft before you start adding in other ingredients, especially the tomatoes. Otherwise the eggplant will never cook properly and will be bitter. This is a great vegetarian substitute for traditional Bolognese pasta sauce.

Almost every week I roast separate pans of eggplant, tomatoes (usually cherry unless it’s the height of the season) plus zucchini and various sweet peppers. I season each separately-sometimes Italianish often Middle eastern (baharat or ras al hanut). Roasting cuts way down on the amount of oil. Later I throw it all into a pot on the stove and simmer till the flavors meld. I use it for whatever I come up with for dinner-chicken or pasta, parm or feta, hot spices or warm. Makes great shakshuka.

I give up- what is CRP??

I agree with GregB that it isn't necessary to use so much oil in cooking the eggplant. I used the Cook's Illustrated method of par-cooking the cubes (see https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/1810-10-unexpected-ways-to-use-your-microwave. ) After this, proceed with cooking in much less oil. The eggplant will not turn to mush. Also, the suggestions about adding more flavoring (anchovy, garlic, oregano, etc.) is good, unless using a well seasoned homemade tomato sauce.

I made some tweaks: sweated the cubed eggplant with salt and dried them with paper towel, then mixed the cubes in a bowl with some drizzled olive oil, Italian spices, and Italian bread crumbs. Baked on oven pan at 400 degrees, turning once, until nicely done. Then put in an oven dish and mixed in al-dente pasta, tomato sauce from a jar and grated mozzarella cheese, sprinkling grated parmesan on top. Baked the casserole before putting it under the broiler. Voila. Delicious.

Add a little sherry vinegar and red wine to the sauce. More garlic than called for.

This is a variation of Pasta Alla Norma

Someone on this site suggested recently that the microwave is useful with eggplant, and may cut way down on oil or butter. I’ve been zapping eggplant, sliced or however, for recipes where I’m not sure that baking or sautéing will cook it enough. Or when my time-planning is inadequate!

How about roasting the eggplant so there's not so much oil? Anybody try that? If you bake it as a casserole is the oil step necessary?