Eggplant Penne Pasta!

If you ever find yourself needing to quickly cook something for your friends or family, then pasta is the perfect choice because it's cheap, quick, and easy to make! 

The great thing about Pasta is that it's so versatile that you can literally do anything to it, you can add whatever vegetable, any sauce, and it will still taste extremely good. So today I'm choosing to put Eggplant! All you need for this dish is a Pasta of your choice, Sauce of your choice, Garlic, and Eggplant!

You can use any type of Eggplant you want, I'm choosing to use the traditional dark Eggplant that you can find at any market, you can leave the skin on, however I'm choosing to remove some of the skin off and you should also make sure to dice the eggplant evenly.

Before sauteing you're Eggplant, make sure to to soak your Eggplant in salt and water in a bowl, this will remove most of the fluid from the Eggplant and that will ensure that your Eggplant doesn't turn brown or mushy. 

Since this is a meatless dish, I'm choosing to put a 1 clove of Garlic because adding a little Garlic can make your dish taste very meaty even though there is no meat in the dish. So make sure to chop your Garlic very finely because NO ONE wants to bite down on a huge piece of garlic. 

Now get your pan ready by drizzling a bit of Olive Oil and letting it heat up before throwing your Garlic in the pan, it's good to saute your Garlic first since it can flavor the Olive Oil as well as anything you cook in the pan. 

Now add your diced Eggplant into the pan and stir it around until it reaches a golden color. Don't multitask, you'll end up over browning your Eggplant.

In the meantime your water should be coming to a boil and a good tip I learned is to generously salt your water, Pasta doesn't have much of a flavor and whatever you add to the water will flavor your Pasta.

Today I'm choosing to work with a Penne Pasta, it takes awhile to cook since the texture can be a little tough, but it's really good when making dishes especially since it soaks up the sauce and the flavors-- need I say more?

 Pay attention, cause this right here is super important, after I managed to cook my Eggplant, I went into the fridge and realized that we had no Pasta sauce of any kind! But that's okay because if you have Tomato sauce or Tomato paste, then you're good because with a little Paste and a lot of Spices, no one will even tell the difference between the Store bought sauce and Last minute sauce. 

Into the pan, throw in a tbs of Tomato paste and a half (or whole) can of Tomato sauce, then ladle some of that boiling pasta water into the pan and allow the sauce to simmer, to combat the Tomato flavor start adding some of your favorite spices like Oregano, Basil, Black Pepper, and Salt. 

After your Pasta is finished, drain it into a colander and a good trick is to drizzle a bit of Olive Oil into the Pasta to keep it from sticking. 

Then throw your Pasta right into your sauce pan and start mixing until it's very well combined. 

Now serve your pasta and make sure to garnish it with some herbs or some shredded cheese, whatever you like and don't forget to enjoy!