You may have read my post regarding how much I loved Dinner of Herbs eggplant bruschetta recipe. I said I could put the eggplant mixture on anything. Well, I actually bought the ingredients to make the bruschetta, I even remembered the bread! But when I arrived at home I looked in my refrigerator and realized I had some zucchini I needed to use. Plus I had some mushrooms I needed to use. So I decided this would be a great time to put the eggplant and tomato mixture with a little extra over pasta. So I am just adding zucchini and mushrooms to the way I made the bruschetta. Here is what I made:
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Five-Vegetable Pasta
Ingredients:
–1 medium or large eggplant, cubed (very small)
–4 medium sized tomatoes, cubed
–1 lb of mushrooms, sliced or coarsely chopped
–2 zucchinis, grated
–3/4 of a large onion, chopped (tiny)
—olive oil
—two tablespoons of butter
—garlic powder
—onion powder
—salt
—pepper
—sweet basil
—balsamic vinegar
—Parmesan cheese, as desired
—1 package/box/container of pasta (I prefer linguine)
Heat the oven to 450°F.
Put the eggplant on a baking sheet. (I used parchment paper on the baking sheet.) Drizzle with olive oil. Mix it up, then spread the eggplant evenly, in one layer (the eggplant I used was too large to be one layer), over the baking sheet. After baking for about 10 minutes, move the eggplant around on the pan. After another 10 minutes, gently stir/toss the eggplant and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake for about an additional 25 minutes. Stirring or tossing if necessary to ensure even roasting. In between roasting the eggplant, spread 3/4 of the tomato out over a baking sheet. (I used parchment paper on the baking sheet.) Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and onion powder. (Tomatoes are too delicate to be mixed as done with the eggplant.) Bake until the edge pieces are browning. Stirring gently, if you want. I ended up cooking the tomatoes for about 30 minutes.
Somewhere in between cooking the mushrooms and zucchini as instructed below, you might want to cook your pasta. I prefer my pasta hot. You can plan and cook accordingly.
While the other vegetables are baking, heat some olive oil and 1/2 the chopped onion in a pan. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper as desired (I use garlic salt) and cook to your liking (I like them a little caramelized). Remove from pan and set the mushrooms aside. Add two tablespoons of butter to the pan. Once the butter is melted add the grated zucchini. Cook the zucchini about 10 minutes on medium heat.
Once all the veggies are cooked to your satisfaction put half of the cooked and drained pasta in a large bowl, then add half of all of the cooked vegetables. Add the basil, vinegar, any additional salt and/or pepper you desire. Then add the rest of the pasta and cooked vegetables along with half of the raw tomato and onion. Toss it all. Taste it to see if you want more basil, vinegar, salt and/or pepper. Put the rest of the raw tomato and onion on top. Serve the pasta sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
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This is the first recipe I wrote FIRST, then followed. I made a few adjustments to the recipe as I was cooking, and noted them before posting. I think layering the pasta, then veggies makes for easier mixing. Of course, you can mix it anyway you’d like. I loved this. I loved the flavor as I did when I made the eggplant bruschetta. What I would do next time is use 3 tomatoes instead of four. The flavor of the tomatoes overpowered everything. I am looking forward to having the leftovers, as I believe left over pasta is often better than the freshly made dish. The flavors have time to meld.
This is an easy dish, there is nothing complicated about any part of the process, but with all of the chopping it is a bit labor intensive. The separate roasting of the eggplant and tomatoes makes it a long process. I didn’t want to roast them at the same time. But if you chop while things are cooking . . . . .
I will probably make it again.
What about you? Does it sound good? Which of the vegetables is your favorite?
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