Eggplant and Pasta with Cheese Pita Bread
A plain eggplant, tomato and red capsicum pasta sauce served on top of penne with toasted cheese pita bread on the side. They all go well together- we like this for dinner.
Ingredients
Serves: 6
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 (800g) tin of crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
- 1 pinch ground black pepper to taste
- 1 1/4 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 (200) jar roasted red capsicum, drained and cut into strips
- 500g penne pasta
- 3 pita breads ro equivalent of Lebanese bread
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 30g grated Parmesan cheese or to taste
- 1 pinch sweet paprika to taste
- 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preparation:15min ›
Cook:1hour ›
Ready in:1hour15min
- Heat the olive oil in a frypan over medium heat, and cook the eggplant for about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, basil, pepper and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. Mix the roasted red capsicums into the frypan with the eggplant mixture. Continue cooking until eggplant is the consistency of the rest of the sauce.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place the penne in the pot, cook 9 to 11 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
- While the pasta is cooking, preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Open the pita bread and evenly spread insides with butter. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and season with paprika, salt and pepper.
- Heat the pitas in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Serve the eggplant sauce on top of the pasta with the baked cheese pita bread on the side.
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Reviews and Ratings
Global Ratings:
(29)
Reviews in English (23)
This is a great base to start with. I added fresh basil, garlic, and oregeno. It would be great with artichokes and/or mushrooms added also. It got my extra picky husband to eat eggplant so I'm thrilled! - 21 Jul 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Made this tonight and it turned out delicious. I started by cooking some onions first, followed by eggplant and mushrooms. For the sauce I added a combination of Italian whole canned tomatoes, and pureed tomatoes. The roasted red peppers give the sauce a nice smokey sweetness. I also added garlic, Italian seasoning, oregano, and basil, as well as fennel seed. I learned from another excellent recipe on this site to add the fennel and it really make the sauce taste nice and meaty, sans the meat. I also made the pita cheese bread with the paprika and that was quite good too. - 24 Feb 2009 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
My favorite (obviously). Please try it, and tell me what you think. The cheese bread can obviously be made seperately -- it's delicious even alone. Somehow allrecipes messed up the pita bread recipe. Here is a corrected version. Open the pitas, put a light and even spread of butter on the insides. Sprinkle lots of parmesan cheese and then put on some SWEET PEPRIKA -- i like to make a light sprinkling across each piece. If you want, you can saute some garlic and onions before you throw in the egglant chunks. The cubes of egglant should be about 1/2 x 1/2". The sauce is even better when you weave in some mozzarella cheese at the end when you're mixing the pasta and the sauce together. - 26 Jul 2004 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)