Eggplant Tomato And Mozzarella Pasta Bake Food

BAKED PASTA WITH TOMATOES AND EGGPLANT

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. (Make sure your oven is clean!) Place three (6-inch) gratin dishes on a sheet pan and set aside.
• Boil a large pot of water, add a tablespoon of salt, and add the pasta. If you're using one type of pasta, cook it for 1 to 2 minutes less than the directions on the package. If you're using two kinds of pasta, start with the one that cooks longest and add the second later so they finish at the same time. You want the pasta to be quite al dente. Drain.
• Pour the Tomato and Eggplant Soup into a large bowl, add the cooked pasta, the mozzarella, 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper and toss well. Divide the mixture evenly among the three gratin dishes, dot the tops with the butter, and bake for 10 minutes, until hot and bubbly and the pasta begins to brown. Sprinkle each dish with 1 tablespoon of the remaining Parmesan, bake for another 4 minutes, and serve hot.
• Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a medium (10 to 11-inch) pot or Dutch oven, such as Le Creuset, over medium heat. Add the eggplant and saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Add a little more olive oil if the eggplant is sticking.
• Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pot, add the onions and fennel, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, stirring often. Add the chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, fennel seeds, oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 teaspoons black pepper. Pour the can of whole tomatoes, including the liquid, into a food processor and pulse until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Add the tomatoes and the liquid to the pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasonings. Serve hot in large bowls sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

EGGPLANT AND TOMATO PASTA

Steps:

• Place eggplant in a colander and season generously with salt. Fill a 1-gallon plastic bag with water, seal tightly and place over eggplant to weigh down. Let stand for 40 minutes.
• Rinse the salt off the eggplant, and pat dry. Place the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add eggplant and cook, stirring often, until golden brown on all sides, about 20 minutes.
• Add garlic, tomatoes and their juice to the pan. Stir in the sugar and salt. Simmer until sauce has slightly thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes or longer depending on how juicy your tomatoes are. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add the basil and cook 1 minute more. Serve over pasta.

EGGPLANT, TOMATO AND MOZZARELLA PASTA BAKE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season aggressively with salt. Add the rigatoni and cook 3 minutes less than the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water and drain.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Toss the eggplant and tomatoes with 3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread on the baking sheet and roast until the eggplant is golden brown and tomatoes are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. (Leave the oven on.)
• Toss the rigatoni with the eggplant, tomatoes, about 1/4 cup pasta water and the marinara sauce in a large bowl. If it looks dry, add the remaining pasta water. Stir in 1 cup mozzarella.
• Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Transfer the pasta to the baking dish and top with the remaining cup mozzarella and the Parmesan and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon olive oil. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. (Turn the broiler on at the end if you want the cheese to brown more.) Garnish with additional Parmesan and the chopped basil and serve.

MOZZARELLA BAKED EGGPLANT AND ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Grease a 9" square baking dish.
• Cut the eggplant into 1/2" thick slices. Layer 1/2 of the slices on the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/2 C of the sauce and 1 T of the basil.
• Toss together the Mozz & Parm. Sprinkle 2/3 C of the cheese over the top of the sauce.
• Layer the zucchini over the cheese. Top with 3/4 C of the sauce, 2 T of the basil, and 2/3 C of the cheese.
• Top with remaining eggplant slices and the remaining sauce, basil & cheese.
• Cover with aluminum foil and bake 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 25 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
• Spoon "extra" sauce over servings from bottom of dish.

EGGPLANT, TOMATO, AND SMOKED MOZZARELLA TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°.
• To prepare crust, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.
• Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through 1/4 teaspoon salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in center of mixture.
• Add water and 1 tablespoon oil, stirring to form a soft dough.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 4 times.
• Gently press dough into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap; cover and chill 15 minutes.
• Slightly overlap 2 sheets of plastic wrap on a slightly damp surface.
• Unwrap dough, and place chilled dough on plastic wrap.
• Cover with 2 additional sheets of overlapping plastic wrap.
• Roll dough, still covered, into an 11-inch circle.
• Remove top sheets of plastic wrap.
• Fit dough, plastic-wrap side up, into a 10-inch round ceramic tart dish coated with cooking spray.
• Remove remaining plastic wrap.
• Press dough against bottom and sides of pan.
• Pierce bottom and sides of dough with a fork; bake at 400° for 10 minutes.
• Cool completely on a wire rack.
• To prepare filling, arrange eggplant on several layers of heavy-duty paper towels.
• Sprinkle eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon salt; let stand 15 minutes.
• Pat dry with paper towels; brush eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon oil.
• Arrange eggplant in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
• Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.
• Stack eggplant slices on a plate; cover with plastic wrap.
• Let eggplant stand 7 minutes to steam.
• Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, basil, oregano, mint, and tomatoes.
• Sprinkle 2 tablespoons smoked mozzarella on bottom of baked crust.
• Layer eggplant and tomato mixture in crust; sprinkle with 6 tablespoons smoked mozzarella and Parmesan.
• Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.
• Cut into 8 wedges.

EGGPLANT PASTA BAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly oil a large, deep casserole dish. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
• Arrange the sliced eggplant on a greased cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
• In a food processor, puree the onion, bell pepper, garlic and optional ancho chile pepper. If the mixture is too thick add a tablespoon of water. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Pour the onion mixture into the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated and the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour until smooth. Add milk, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat.
• Arrange half of the baked eggplant in the greased casserole dish. Spoon in half of the white sauce, covering the eggplant. Spread the veggie crumbles over the white sauce, followed by the pasta, and a layer of the bell pepper puree. Cover the the onion and pepper mixture with remaining eggplant and spoon the remaining white sauce over the eggplant. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the casserole.
• Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

TOMATO EGGPLANT BAKE

Steps:

• Place eggplant slices in a colander over a plate; sprinkle with salt and toss. Let stand 30 minutes. Rinse and drain well. , Preheat oven to 450°. Layer eggplant, tomato and onion in a lightly greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Drizzle with 4 tablespoons butter; sprinkle with basil. Cover and bake 20 minutes. , Toss bread crumbs and remaining butter. Arrange mozzarella cheese over vegetables; sprinkle with crumb mixture and Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

BAKED EGGPLANT WITH PESTO, PARMESAN, AND MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Salt the eggplant slices and lay on a paper towel for 20 minutes to extract any bitter flavors.
• Pat the slices dry.
• Grill the slices (I use a dry grill pan on the stove top but you could also broil) until soft but not all the way done.
• Heat a skillet and add 2 TBS olive oil, Saute onion, garlic, and bellpepper until soft.
• Salt and pepper liberally.
• Stir in the wine and chicken broth and reduce to about 1/2 Cup.
• Stir in pesto and tomato paste and remove from the heat.
• In a casserole dish sprinkle the remaining 1 TBS olive oil and lay one layer of eggplant slices on top.
• Spread 1/3 of the sauce on the eggplant and top with 1/3 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers.
• Top with the remaining cheese.
• Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until cheese is browning and bubbly and eggplant slices are soft.

RIGATONI WITH SWEET TOMATOES, EGGPLANT AND MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into ½ inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into ½ inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don't really do this unless I'm dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.
• Now put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. When it's hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan, stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that's up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.
• While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.
• At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! (Jamie's words) Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. Take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

CHICKEN, EGGPLANT AND TOMATO BAKE

Steps:

• Slice the eggplants in half longways - sprinkle the surface with salt. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, rinse and pat dry.
• Brush/spray a baking tray with a little oil. Place the eggplants on a single layer and bake at 200oC for 7-10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, slice the chicken through the middle length ways (so you have 6 half fillets). Coat the chicken with seasoning.
• Place the chicken on top of the hot eggplant.
• Mix the garlic with the pasta sauce (or leave out if it already has enough for your personal taste).
• Pour sauce over the chicken and cover with the cheeses.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through).
• Serve with salad and crusty bread.

ITALIAN EGGPLANT TOMATO BAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a plastic bag, combine the flour, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning. Shake to mix. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs and water. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. There should be enough oil to thinly coat the bottom of the skillet. Dip the eggplant slices in egg, then place in the bag and shake to coat. Fry the slices in the skillet until golden brown on each side. Remove, and drain on paper towels.
• Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9 inch square baking dish. Cover with the eggplant slices, then top with more sauce. Mix together the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese; spread over the eggplant. Spread sauce over the cheese, and top with tomato slices. Cover with more sauce, and spread remaining cheese over the top.
• Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Drain. Serve the eggplant tomato bake over pasta.