Recently while traveling in Italy we had a scrumptious cheesy penne eggplant dish. I decided to try and re-create it for dinner.
My goal was to make this a super easy under 45 min recipe and I did it! I hope you will try this easy delicious Italian dish.
Simple Ingredients for Penne eggplant dish
You can increase the amounts of eggplant, pasta and cheese to your liking. I made this for my hubby and I and had plenty for left overs the next day.
1 eggplant
1/2 C fresh basil
1 bottle of Mazzetta marina sauce
!/2 C Ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
1/2 bag Penne pasta
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Roast the eggplant
First you need to roast the eggplant so it is golden in color.
I used my vegetable peeler to peel off most of the skin. I think next time I would even take more off.
Then slice it into 1/2″ rounds.
Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush both sides of each slice with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast in 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until golden in color.
Cook the penne pasta
While the eggplant is roasting you can get your pot of water boiling for your pasta.
Add salt to the water and boil the penne pasta for 11 minutes or until pasta is done to your liking.
You could use spaghetti noodles or any other type that you might have on hand.
Combine the marinara, cheese, eggplant and pasta
While the pasta boils, cut up your fresh basil. I like to use scissors to cut up my basil.
Once your pasta is done, drain it.
Heat your marinara in a pan, stir in your roasted eggplant, add in the ricotta cheese.
Note- When I opened my ricotta it was bad so I ended up using cottage cheese and it worked great!
Now you can add the pasta and gently stir to combine.
Enjoy your cheesy eggplant penne dish
Serve in bowls, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and enjoy!
So easy and delicious. It is kind of like a lasagna the easy way!
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This sounds delicious and before you even mentioned it, I was wondering if it would work with cottage cheese as I often have that on hand and rarely have ricotta. Thanks for the dinner idea! Pinned.