Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Pasta Recipe (2024)

I made this tonight w/ terrific results. It's always nice to be able to use some of the peppers from the gallon jug of pepperoncini I bought at the restaurant-supply store for $6. One note from my experience would be to save more pasta cooking water than you ordinarily might because the desiccated eggplant soaks up a lot of sauce even after the pasta finishes cooking in it.

I make a similar version weekly. Cut a large unpeeled eggplant into 1-inch cubes, toss with olive oil, a Tbs each of red pepper flakes and sea salt. Bake @ 425 for 20 minutes, remove and redistribute the eggplant, and return to oven for another 10-15 minutes. Tomato sauce consists of mixture of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes simmered with Tbs each of EVOO, red pepper flakes, and sea salt. Simmer until desired consistency. I add Parmesan or Riccota Salata and serve.

Bake eggplant/peppers at 450 for 30 to 40 minutes? Only if you like crunchy burnt eggplant turds in your sauce. Try 15 minutes.

Hi Melissa, Do you ever line your baking sheets with parchment paper? This saves tons of washing up and prolongs the life of the sheets. I think the environmental impact of the silicone is probably balanced by less washing.

Roasting the eggplant & peppers was intensely flavorful, but grating the tomatoes made the sauce too watery; I kept hoping the sauce would thicken, but instead it just reduced without really thickening, & these were good farmstand tomatoes. I've achieved better results in the past by simply chopping the tomatoes.

I learned to cook a version of this in Italy where they salt the raw eggplant (sliced) and press it under a heavy plate for several hours before curbing and cooking. They say it takes the bitterness out of the eggplant and actually sweetens it. I believe it does.

I modified this sauce by melding it with Marcella Hazan's tomato/butter/onion recipe and added the butter and onion to the tomato sauce while it was reducing. I had to cook the sauce for over an hour to get it to the right consistency, but it was totally worth it!

Good summer recipe - I'm lucky enough to live near a few farm-stands that sell 'soft' tomatoes that are perfect for sauce. So I used about 4-5 pounds of them and reduced them to about 1/4. The addition of the eggplant and peppers gave it a nice oomph.
I also added a ton of fresh basil in lieu of the butter, cheese and capers.

I think a foodmill would work really well instead of the grater. I use one all the time for pulping my fresh tomatoes for sauce. Works wonderfully without any fuss of a grater and knicking your fingers. Leaves only skins behind. Very easy to clean.

I've done a version of this, without the butter but with cubed mozzarella tossed in as the dish is assembled. Roasting keeps the shape and texture of the eggplant intact, and concentrates flavor. Tasty!

Wish I'd read the suggestions below before cooking this. The cooking time is way too long. Shorten it to 15-20 mins. Also, yes do line your cooking sheets with parchment or foil so the eggplant does not stick. Otherwise, very tasty and healthy! I grated the tomatoes as per the recipe and the sauce was delicious.

I have one very large and one regular size baking sheet. Food never touches them, so they've never been cleaned. Parchment paper or foil leaves them pristine. They need to be replaced every 10 years or so, because inevitably a little juice will escape and blacken the pan in odd spots.

Do you love olives, as do I? Have you ever compared pitted to nonpitted? Nonpitted have much firmer flesh and less brine, so it's night and day, kind of like the difference between roasted chicken and fried. I pit all of my olives myself, when necessary.

Don't change a thing. This is sublime. I could eat eggplants every single day (South Indian here!) but never thought to put them in pasta. Amazing.

This is quite delicious, especially the roasted eggplant. I roasted it at 400 degrees convection for about 30 minutes, and it was perfect. We have a bumper crop of shish*to peppers, so I roasted a bunch of those and added them to the pasta with the eggplant (and a big handful of basil from the garden, too). The grated tomatoes were good, and coated the pasta nicely. Wanted more tomato, so I threw in some halved cherry tomatoes. Didn't use the capers. Will make again, with other variations.

A great recipe

Love this recipe—this time around I adapted it a little. Instead of butter and capers I bloomed some sunflower oil in a tadka with herbs de Provence, lemon peel, a cinnamon stick, crushed chiles and fresh chiles with a little tamari and salt, let that marinate and finished our pasta with it. It added a lot of warmth and umami and paired nicely with the brightness of the tomatoes and peppers.

Really good! Even my “I don’t like egg plant” eaters really enjoyed it - served atop bonza gf pasta and will definitely make again

Absolutely perfect way to use CSA eggplant.

To readers out there frantically looking for something to do with eggplants: Yes, you can modify this in many ways. I had more than 1 3/4lbs eggplant (just over 2lbs) & I just proceeded with the directions. I ran out of olive oil (!) so used sesame oil too. only had a jalapeno pepper, used that, brilliant. didn't have fresh tomatoes, so used a can of san marzanos w/dried oregano, honey & lots of garlic for sauce. Used the capers. A whole box of farfalle. Just grated pecorino for serving. YUM!

This was really good! I used canned crushed tomatoes and substituted the capers with olives.

Finally got my first eggplant this season after last year's two plants got sucked underground immediately by gophers plus 6-7 early girl tomatoes (squirrels got last year's ripening tomatoes before I erected a protective cage around the tomatoes). I made only half of this recipe for the two of us and even Tom who does not particularly like eggplant enjoyed it. I made it with rigatoni since that's what I had and picked pepperoncini as someone else suggested. Excellent and easy to make.

Great light pasta! Agreed with the reviewers about cooking the eggplants and peppers for 5 to minutes.

This dish works really well as a winter time meal as well. I made the recipe as written except with (dare I say it) canned crushed tomatoes and added some dry Italian seasoning. The eggplant is truly the star and the results were delicious.

A nice hearty, healthy meal. I roasted the eggplant at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, flipping after 20 minutes, and it came out beautifully caramelized. To save time, I also used a 28 oz can of San marzano crushed tomatoes instead of grating my tomatoes. Came out delicious!

We make this with Cascatelli, the new pasta shape “invented” by Dan Pashman, creator and host of The Sporkful food podcast and frequent guest on the Milk Street radio program. It’s made by the Sfoglini Pasta company.

Made this on 10/2/2022Served with lamb chopsIt was deliciousModifications:Made it with 1 lb farfalle, so it needed more everything.Peppers should be cut in squares, not strips, and red bell peppers could be used instead. Used 1 poblano and 3 Italian peppers.as to the ratios:Could use more peppersCould use more tomatoes if cooking downEggplant took a long time to roast - more than 40 minutes on 2 sheet pans. This could vary with the type and age of eggplants, so keep an eye on it.

Soooooo good. We made it vegan by adding a quarter wheel of Miyokos mozzerella, cut into small chunks. It melted in with the eggplant. I can't wait to make this dish again.

Great recipe. I was too lazy to grate the tomatoes. I parboiled and removed the skins, as that seemed to be the point of grating, then mushed them up by hand and threw them into the skillet. I cooked them down a bit and further broke them up with a potato masher. It created a nice fresh sauce with the additions in the recipe. I will definitely make again.

Ive never used the ricotta salata, just parmesan. but this recipe has become a summer staple in my house. highly recommend giving it a try.