Eating Local: Fried Eggplant + Farmers Market Pasta

Nothing brightens up a long day of work like hitting up a local farmer's market on the way home. Sometimes the produce section of a supermarket can seem a little anemic; it can be difficult to navigate what's in season and what's been shipped across the country. Use this recipe as inspiration to hit up your own local farmers market for local & seasonal finds. I just picked up anything that seemed interesting, like purple Italian basil. You can sub out ingredients as you like for the pasta sauce - get creative!

Ingredients for Eggplant

• 3 small white eggplants (or 1 full size purple eggplant)
  
• olive oil
  
• fresh ground salt & pepper

Ingredients for Farmers Market Pasta

• 1 package of your choice of pasta
  
• 1 large zucchini
  
• 1 yellow bell pepper
  
• 3 medium tomatoes
  
• 1/2 yellow onion
  
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
  
• handful purple Italian basil
  
• handful fresh parsley leaves
  
• 1 jar basic pasta sauce
  
• olive oil
  
• oregano
  
• salt & pepper
  
• crushed red pepper

First get all your veggies chopped to easily prepare your pasta sauce. Cut all veggies (except eggplant) into small cubes, as pictures above. Peel the skin off the eggplant - but DO NOT slice until you're ready to cook. Put a large pot of salted water to boil so you can toss the pasta in when you're finishing up the sauce.


In a large sauce pan, saute the garlic and tomatoes in approx 2 tbsp of olive oil. Cook at medium heat until tomatoes soften and start to release juice, about 5 minutes.


Add zucchini, onion, bell peppers. Season with freshly ground salt & pepper, oregano and crushed red pepper to taste. Stir ingredients together so all veggies are coated in tomato juices. Cook covered at a medium heat for 5-7 minutes to join flavors, stirring occasionally until zucchini should have softened up a bit. Add jar of pasta sauce, lower heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Get that pasta going in the water and cook according to directions. I used CAPUAOID pasta -- I usually just let Bill pick out whatever kind strikes him when we're at the supermarket. Keep it extra healthy by choosing something whole wheat. If cooking fresh pasta you might want to wait until you start cooking the eggplant so that the timing works out better. As a general rule, getting the pasta going at this time should have most pasta types finishing up by the time your dish is done.



Slice the eggplant, lengthwise if smaller (pictured above). If using a large purple eggplant, slice into round disks. Season with freshly ground salt & pepper.


Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick skillet. If you don't have a non-stick skillet, I would also spray the eggplant with cooking spray to help prevent from sticking. Add eggplant in a single layer without crowding too much. Fry eggplant on each side 2-3 minutes until golden brown. You may have to add a little more olive oil as you go to cook up the eggplant because they will absorb a lot of the oil. Again, this is why using a little cooking spray to grease things up can help eggplant from sticking without drowning everything in oil.


Lay eggplant slices on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil before serving.


At this point, your pasta sauce should be finished. Check the largest veggie pieces to make sure they are tender. Remove and drain pasta. Serve eggplant slices along side (or on top of) Farmers Market Pasta. Garnish with a generous pinch of chopped purple basil and fresh parsley. Feel free to add some freshly grated cheese, I think a sprinkle of a nice goat cheese chevre is a perfect complement.

Quick Tip: Pro Pizza Toppings

Bill loves pizza, in a serious way. Most weeks it's inevitable that pizza makes the dinnertime menu. To save money and eat healthier, we often make our own at home. Making dough from scratch is fun, but at the end of a long work week or a rough Monday, I'm searching for ready-made solutions.
However, when using one shortcut, it's still a cinch to give a homemade touch with extra love to the art of toppings.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb whole wheat pizza dough, fresh or thawed
  
• package shredded mozzarella cheese (for lactose solutions, see Brands I Like below)
  
• 1 jar pasta baking sauce
  
• 3 raw Italian chicken sausages
  
• 6 baby bella mushrooms
  
• 1/4 onion, sliced
  
• garlic salt
  
• oregano
  
• fresh-ground salt & pepper
  
• flour for kneading
  
• olive oil
  
• cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. I recommend using a round, grated pizza dish. Although we do own a pizza stone, melted cheese can make clean-up a fiasco. I find a basic, perforated pizza pan, like this one, to be the most fool proof.


First, cut the chicken sausages into half inch pieces. It may be easier to remove the sausage meat from the cases. Saute pieces in a skillet coated with cooking spray. Season with garlic salt, oregano and pepper. Add onions and cook until sausage browns and is just cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. Remove sausage mixture and reserve pan.


Add olive oil to pan, scrape up the sausage drippings and add baby bella slices. Season with grated sea salt. Cook on a low heat until mushrooms soften and start to sweat, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sausage & onion mixture.


Divide 1 lb of dough in half, wrap other half and place in fridge. Roll out first half of dough on a lightly floured surface. If you don't have a rolling pin, use the jar of spaghetti sauce or cooking spray can. Don't stress if it's not perfectly round, mine never is. Carefully lift up dough and transfer to pizza pan that has been lightly greased with cooking spray. Pinch ends of dough up to make crust. Spoon pasta sauce onto dough and spread around dough, careful to leave a little space along the edge.


Sprinkle with cheese to your liking, I usually use half a package of those preshredded bags of cheese. Add half of sausage/mushroom/onion topping evenly over pizza, transfer to oven and bake 10-12 minutes. While the first pizza is baking, roll out the second pizza. When the 1st pizza is cooked, transfer to baking sheet and transfer uncooked dough to pizza pan & repeat steps to make crust and add toppings. Let pizza sit a couple minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Brands I Like: I always make one pizza with mozzarella and the 2nd pizza with a lactose free alternative. For my fellow lactards, I recommend this shredded mozzarella faux-cheese. It melts well and can satisfy my cravings without making me feel miserable. The package is a little small, and I used almost all of it on my lactose-free pizza.