Baked Pasta with Sausage and Eggplant

Posted by CK in cheese, eggplant, pasta, recipe, sausage

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YUMMY. Last night I actually had time to cook a nice dinner for M and I and it turned out great! Believe it or not, I actually found this recipe on a parenting website (no worries A, I wouldn't tell you on a blog ;)). The recipes on family websites are usually very little time-consuming (takes about 45 minutes from start to finish) and delicious as it needs to please the kids. This one was no exception! Although frying eggplants is not the best for your health calorie-wise (as it absorbs most fat and adds a hell of alot of calories in the process), you'd be fine eating small portions of it. Besides, this recipe is so packed with ingredients that you won't need a big portion to fill up that belly! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dry pasta
• 6 links of your favorite pre-cooked sausage (beef, pork or chicken) (I used 3 large sausages that were on sale at Super C - the ones we use for the bbq - instead of 6 links of sausage)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large eggplant cut into 1-inch pieces (you'll see that this might look like ALOT of eggplant when you cut it up, but it's actually very proportional)
• 2 tablespoons of dry basil (the original recipe calls for fresh basil but I didn't have any and it still tasted awesome)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• Pepper
• 1 can of Aylmer tomato soup
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese (optional - I didn't have any)

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta only 6-7 minutes. It will be firm (and will soften when it's baked).
2. While waiting for water to boil, chop the sausages (into big pieces) and the onion and garlic. Cook together in olive oil in a skillet 3-4 minutes (they'll cook further when baked). Put sausages, onion and garlic in a large casserole dish.
3. In the same oil fry as many eggplant pieces as you can fit. Cook until both sides are browned and then add eggplant to casserole. Repeat with all of the eggplant pieces, adding more oil when necessary.
4. Add the cooked pasta (drained) and ½ cup of the pasta water to the casserole. Add the basil to casserole and add 1 cup of mozzarella. Grind in some black pepper.
5. In a mixing bowl, pour the tomato soup, the tomato paste and the water and mix well. Pour in pasta casserole. Stir until all ingredients are combined.
6. Optional: Sprinkle remaining cup mozzarella and Parmesan over pasta.
7. Cover with foil and refrigerate if making ahead, or immediately bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

I would like to apologize for the picture - it's not the best for this dish but take my word for it, it's absolutely amazing! I got my sausages a little spicy so it gave an extra umph to the dish!

Enjoy!

-CK