Easy dinners: how to get eggplant right

Last week we had some delicious eggplant cooked at a restaurant, and I was determined to try and make something similarly tasty at home. For some reason, I haven't been able to get eggplant quite right, which gave me some motivation to try.

After reading through this article on how to cook eggplant, I decided to try the Chinese eggplant instead of the globe eggplants that I am usually bested by. The results were awesome!

Easy Mushroom-Eggplant pasta:
- Jar chunky tomato sauce (apx 3 cups)
- 2 Tbs. crushed garlic
- 6 Chinese eggplants, diced
- 3 c. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 2 c. shell pasta
- 1 Tbs olive oil (optional) or 3 Tbs water.

Put a large pan of water on to boil. Add pasta and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat a large pan (I used my wok) to medium-high heat. Add either oil or water and cook the garlic 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and eggplant, cover, and stir periodically until the eggplant are tender. You can take the lid off and let the mushrooms/eggplant brown a little for some extra flavor.
Add tomato sauce and pasta. Add a little salt to taste. Serve and enjoy!



This dinner was toddler approved: