Easy Weeknight Eggplant Pasta Bake

This pasta bake is a great weeknight staple. It has all the comfort of a cheesy and delicious lasagna, but is even easier to make. It reheats well too. We love a dinner that turns into lunch or even better, lunches! It's also super versatile in that you can easily swap out the eggplant for a different veggie if you have something else in the garden or fridge that you need to use. Some of my favorite swaps are spinach, zucchini, or mushroom.

If following a gluten free or grain free diet, just simply swap out the pasta for your favorite gluten or grain free varieties. Our local Costco sells a great chickpea pasta option. The Costco option comes in bulk as to be expected, so I like to use my digital kitchen scale to measure out the pasta into reasonable size servings.

The overall flavor profile of this recipe is pretty mild, so for the pasta sauce, you can use whatever flavor you'd like. I typically go for a classic tomato sauce or something simple like tomato basil, but have fun and try what sounds good. If you have access to fresh herbs such as basil, rosemary, thyme, or oregano, feel free to experiment with adding those as well.

Easy Weeknight Eggplant Pasta Bake

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

2-2.5lb eggplant

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 jar tomato sauce (about 24oz)

1 lb rotini pasta (or similar) (gluten free or grain free works great too)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

3c shredded mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

About 6 c water for cooking

Avocado oil, olive oil, or butter for cooking

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Set a 9x11 or 11x13 oven safe cooking dish on the counter. You will add the ingredients to it as you go.

3. Chop eggplant into bite sized pieces.

4. Add oil or butter to large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add eggplant, salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

5. Once cooked, transfer the eggplant from the saucepan to the oven safe dish.

6. Return the saucepan to medium-high heat. Add a little more oil or butter as needed. Add ground beef or turkey. Heat until no longer pink and fully cooked. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

7. Once cooked, transfer the meat from the saucepan to the oven safe dish.

8. Add about 6 c of water to a large pot over high heat.

9. Once water reaches a rolling boil, add pasta.

10. Follow recommended cooking time for pasta.

11. Once cooked, pour pasta over a colander to strain and rinse with water.

12. Pour pasta back into pot and add sauce. Mix well until pasta is fully coated with sauce.

13. Transfer pasta from the pot into the oven safe dish and carefully mix it into the eggplant and meat.

14. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.

15. Place oven safe cooking dish in the oven on a middle rack. To prevent possible cheese overflows, you can place the cooking dish on top of a clean cookie sheet in the oven.

16. Bake until cheese starts to turn golden brown, usually about 10-20 minutes.

17. Remove from oven and set on counter to cool slightly before cutting.

18. Serve with parmesan cheese, if desired, and enjoy!