Paccheri Con Le Melanzane (Paccheri Pasta with Eggplant Tomato Sauce)

Fresh eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and basil make this Paccheri Pasta from Cooking Vacations stand out from the rest!

Paccheri Con Le Melanzane (Paccheri Pasta with Eggplant Tomato Sauce)

Ingredients

Olive oil, as needed

1 small onion, diced

1 hot pepper

3 long eggplant, slice lengthwise into quarters then chop

Fresh cherry tomatoes, halved

Salt, to taste

1 jar Cirio tomato sauce, or any simple tomato sauce

Water, as needed

1/3 cup or healthy bunch of fresh basil, chopped

1 ½ cup chopped fresh Mozzarella, or to taste

2 packages (1kg) Paccheri pasta

Preparation

In an extra large frying pan, add olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and heat. Add chopped onion and hot pepper. Once they start to sauté, add the chopped eggplant and allow it soak up the olive oil, gently and slowly stir. As the eggplant turns a different color and the skin darkens, add halved cherry tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. Once the tomato starts to cook, start to stir. Add salt to taste. Slowly start to squish cherry tomatoes & eggplant as they soften. Then add the jar of bottled tomato sauce (simple, just crushed.)

Let it cook over a medium flame slowly stirring on occasion.

As your sauce cooks, if it starts to dry out, add about a half-cup of water. When the sauce is cooked, and the eggplant & cherry tomatoes are almost completely dissolved into the sauce, remove from heat, allow to cool for a moment. Add the basil.

When pasta is cooked just right, drain and add the pasta to sauce. Toss together and serve.

Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Serves 10.

*Recipe and image courtesy of www.cooking-vacations.com.*