My Favorite Pasta with Eggplant

Perhaps the most famous pasta dish with eggplant is Pasta alla Norma, which includes tomatoes and cheese. That recipe, Pasta alla Norma, is practically the official pasta dish of Sicily, at least it seemed that way to me when I visited Sicily during my Rome semester at the Centro (the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies). In the middle of my semester, we had a two-week trip to Sicily and southern Italy, staying at a different hotel practically every night as we toured numerous archeological sites. At every new hotel where we arrived in Sicily, they served our group Pasta alla Norma, to highlight this famous pasta dish of the island. I’ll admit I was a bit tired of that dish by the time we left!

So this post is not really about Pasta alla Norma! I do love the dish, but there is another way I love to enjoy pasta with eggplant. I like to cook slices of eggplant in olive oil until they become brown and practically melted inside, and then toss the eggplant with the pasta and a bit of heavy cream. And the amazing thing about eggplant is that this will yield a luscious creamy plate of pasta even without the heavy cream! I’ve made this plenty of times when I didn’t have any cream in the fridge, and I know it will still be a creamy dish without it, so the vegan version works well, too!

When we got an eggplant in our most recent CSA farm share, I was so excited to come home and enjoy a plate of this pasta for dinner!

Creamy Pasta with Eggplant

Serves 2

• 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into ½-inch thick diagonal slices (you can use 2 smaller eggplant, and if so, cut lengthwise)

• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for the pasta water

• ¼ cup olive oil, divided, plus more as needed

• 1½ ounces pancetta, about ½ of a thick slice, chopped, optional, omit for vegetarian/vegan

• 1 large clove garlic, cut into 3 or 4 pieces

• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste

• 8 ounces linguini or other pasta

• ¼-⅓ cup heavy cream, preferably High Lawn, omit for vegan, and use more pasta water (see below)

• Grated Parmesan for serving, omit for vegan

Place paper towel on a plate or cutting board and lay one layer of eggplant slices on top. Sprinkle with some of the salt. Place more paper towel on top, then another layer of eggplant, then some more salt, continuing until you have salted all the slices of eggplant. Place a cutting board or cookie sheet on top of the pile with a couple cans or jars on top for weight. Allow to sit for 20-30 minutes.

Place a pot of salted water on to boil.

Meanwhile, warm about half of the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until shimmering and fragrant. Add the pancetta, pieces of garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add as many slices of eggplant as can fit comfortably in the pan. It’s fine if you cannot fit them all at once. The slices will absorb the oil, but be patient and they will then give up the oil back into the pan. As the slices cook, turn them from time to time until they are nicely brown and fully softened. Adjust the heat as needed so they do not burn. Check the pieces of garlic from time to time, and discard once they get dark and have flavored the oil. (It can take a while for all the eggplant slices to cook fully, and this is how I get the garlic flavor without burning it.) As some eggplant slices are done, stack them on one side of the pan and add more slices, along with more oil as needed, until all are in the sauté pan.

When the last of the eggplant slices are close to being done, add the pasta to the water and cook according to package directions. When the pasta is done, reserve about ½ cup of pasta water in case it is needed. Move the pasta pot right next to the sauté pan. Remove the pasta directly from the water into the skillet, using tongs for linguini, or a spider or strainer if using a shape. It is important that some water cling to the pasta as that helps keep the sauce moist.

Stir the pasta and the eggplant together and pour the cream into the sauté pan. Use the liquid to scrape up anything that has stuck to the bottom of the sauté pan. If the pasta absorbs the cream too much, you can add more cream or use some of the reserved pasta water. For a vegan version, the pasta water mixed with the pasta and eggplant, plus some extra olive oil, will make a delicious sauce.

Serve with plenty of grated Parmesan.