Farmers Market Dinner & Meatless Night in One!

My friend Amy was telling me that she makes a great eggplant pasta for their meatless night. She gave me a quick run-through of how she makes it and it sounded great so I gave it a shot last night. She was right, it is easy and so good. The longer you cook it the more the eggplant and tomatoes soften and sweat. With the added goat cheese it creates a creamy and flavorful sauce.
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I got most of the ingredients for the pasta and the sides from the farmers market on Sunday. Everything in green below was purchased from the market.

As most of you have probably heard, you want a very colorful diet. The most colors you eat in a day, the better. This was a great meal in that regard. There was red, two orange, lots of green and a few purple in one meal! We got other colors inlcuding yellow (banana) and blue (blueberries) throughout the day so my daughter and I covered the whole rainbow yesterday. I don't think I've done that in awhile.


Salad
Butter lettuce
Carrots
Sungold tomatoes (so good they are like candy!)
Cucumber
Homemade vinaigrette


Veggie

Rainbow chard

Shallot

Garlic

Raisins

Pinenuts

Eggplant Pasta

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 red onion, diced

2 T garlic, minced

2 small to medium sized eggplants, cut into 1/2" cubes

2 pints cherry and or grape tomatoes (I used one of each), largest ones cut in half

1/4 cup white wine

3-4 T basil, minced

2 T parsley, minced

1 T oregano, minced

1/2 t red chili flakes

Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

Penne pasta

Goat cheese

Heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat. Add red onion and saute for a few minutes. Add garlic and saute for a few more minutes. Add eggplant and tomatoes. Stir and saute for a few minutes, adding small amounts of olive oil as needed. Add white wine, herbs, red chili flakes, salt and pepper. Increase heat to high. Cover and cook for about five minutes to let the tomatoes and eggplant soften and sweat. Stir and lower heat back to medium. Continue to cook, covered, for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lower heat to low and continue to cook, the longer the better while the flavors meld and everything gets super soft and combined.

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Bring a pot of water to boil. Salt generously and cook penne until al dente. Add noodles to sauce (I used 3/4 of the bag because I like my pasta saucy) and toss to combine. Sprinkle with lots of goat cheese and stir into the pasta. It will melt and make the sauce nice and creamy. Serve with a few last sprinkles of goat cheese and basil on top.