Tomato Eggplant pasta - Quick and easy vegetable pasta loaded with tender garlicky eggplant bites, herbs, bell peppers and served in delicious tomato sauce. Nutritional, comforting, and easy weeknight meal.
Eggplant Pasta or Is It Aubergine Pasta?
Both! It depends on where you're from. In the U.S., it's eggplant pasta, while in the U.K. and many other places, it's aubergine pasta.
No matter what you call it, it's delicious! And by the way, it's kid-approved!
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Eggplant Pasta Video
Why you’ll love this recipe
- It is Vegetarian and can be made Vegan. Simply omit Parmesan cheese or use a plant based alternative.
- Ready in less than 30 minutes.
- It has a good amount of veggies for you!
- Perfect for those who want to have more plant-based diet food and are just starting out. Eggplant has a very ‘’meaty’’ texture and, personally, for me, is very similar to large mushrooms! And I absolutely love mushrooms. Am I the only one who thinks this way?
How To Make Eggplant Pasta
Here are two ways you can make this eggplant pasta.
For softer and creamier pasta, simply follow these recipe steps and you’re good to go.
The other method will take you longer, but also worth it! If you love your eggplants with a firmer texture on the outside, I’d recommend roasting them priorly to the oven.
Here's How I Make It
- Start by cooking your pasta according to the package instructions. I always recommend salting the water—it makes a difference in flavor!
- While the pasta is cooking, heat a large pan over medium-low heat and add the eggplant. No need to rush this step—let it soften a bit, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Remember, eggplant keeps cooking as we add more ingredients, so don’t overdo it.
- Next, toss in the onions and let them cook for a couple of minutes before adding the minced garlic. That garlic-onion aroma? The best part of cooking!
- Now, add the tomatoes and bell peppers. Let them cook for about 5 minutes until the peppers are soft enough to press with a spoon. This is when I pour in my pre-mixed tomato sauce and vegetable broth (mixing them first makes it easier to blend into the dish). Season again with salt and pepper.
- Stir in the dried herbs—I love using a mix of basil and oregano for that classic Italian touch. Then, add the cooked pasta, letting everything simmer for about 3 minutes so the flavors meld beautifully.
- Serve hot, with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan (or more if you’re like me and can’t resist!). Enjoy! 🍝
What Is The Best Way To Eat An Eggplant?
Try the tomato eggplant pasta first and let me know what do you think! By the way, what is your favorite way to eat eggplant?
Mine is making an Eggplant Caviar, in a salad, or making a bunch of mini eggplant pizzas!
- Eggplant mini pizzas - Slice the whole eggplant into thick slices and top up with veggies and lots of cheese (mozzarella is the way to go here!)
- Baba Ganoush, chickpea and eggplant hummus
- Roasted as whole or halves with olive oil and herbs and then served as a side dish
- Stir-fries
Is Salting An Eggplant Necessary?
It used to be important in the old days and in the days when eggplant varieties had a lot of bitterness in them.
Today, this is not the case, they are very mild and I honestly haven’t ‘’met’’ a very bitter eggplant in a long time (and this is for several countries I’ve lived in!)
Salting Eggplant
Salting eggplant is done to remove bitterness. Usually eggplant are cut into halves or slices and are sprinkled generously with salt and left to ‘’sweat it out’’ for at least 30 minutes.
The excess salt and water are then rinsed off and eggplant is ready for cooking.
If you’re still unsure, I’d recommend not salting but peeling eggplant skin off before cutting and cooking. But this way you may end up with too mushy eggplant in the end. Personal preferences that’s what matters!
Recipe Variations
- If you have some cheesy garlicky bread on hand this will be the only thing you need to accompany this lovely eggplant pasta. A glass of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough wouldn't hurt either!
- To make it Vegan simply omit the parmesan cheese or use my Vegan parmesan Cheese instead.
- Fresh green garden salad
- Pecorino, Ricotta or crumbled feta cheese all the way on the top!
- Or a little hint of chili powder/flakes to add some heat to your meal.
- Or use roasted/baked eggplant instead of fried. You can also roast all of the veggies in the oven right before mixing them with pasta and sauce.
More Eggplant Recipes
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Tomato Eggplant Pasta
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 eggplant, medium, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- ½ half of a red or orange bell pepper, chunks or diced
- ½ cup Vegetable broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ cup of uncooked pasta, of your choice
- 1-2 teaspoon dried herbs, Italian seasoning blend or oregano, basil, rosemary
- 1 cup tomato sauce
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook pasta as per package instructions.
- In a large pan cook eggplant on medium to low until slightly softened. Salt and pepper to taste. (Eggplant will continue to soften as you add other veggies.
- Add onions, cook for few minutes and follow with the minced garlic.
- Add tomatoes, bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes or until peppers become soft to touch.
- Pour in tomato paste and vegetable broth (I usually mix those two before adding to the pasta), season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in dried herbs, cooked pasta and let simmer for 3 minutes and serve while hot sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
VIDEO
ADD YOUR OWN PRIVATE NOTES
NUTRITION
Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on the products used.
Full Nutrition Disclaimer can be found here.
Marge
This was great—the whole family loved it! Easy to make too!
Julia
thank you Marge, so glad to hear that your family loved this recipe 🙂 Hopefully you love more Eggplant recipes on this blog!
Ivo
This was great-the whole family loved it!Easy to make too!
Julia
thank you Ivo, so happy to hear your kind words!
Alex
Hello! In the instructions it says to add tomato sauce but it's not listed in the ingredients. how much tomato sauce is needed for this recipe? Thanks!
Julia
Hi Alex, sorry for this, so embarrassing! Actually just found my recipe notes and it is 1 cup of tomato sauce.
Alex
Thank you! I made it using tomato sauce as directed and it was absolutely delicious!
Lucy
Hi Julia, do you mean ketchup?? Or passata?
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Hi Lucy, tomato pasta which I used is similar to the thin tomato puree. You can definitely try passata as it is very similar.