Eggplant & Sausage with Radiatore

I have a crush, on eggplant. I love it, I can't get enough of it! I didn't follow a recipe for this dish, just threw it together using flavors I enjoy. I was being bit lazy and bought a jar of marinara sauce. (I have yet to find a homemade marinara that I love.) I used Victoria brand sauce, which was quite good. While I was opening the jar the sauce spilled onto my shirt, which I then licked off and thought "wow, this is pretty good!"

I began by slicing my eggplant into rounds, laying them on a wire rack on a cookie sheet, and sprinkling them liberally with salt. This is called purging the eggplant. You can find lots of information on it by doing a quick internet search. Basically it helps remove excess water from the eggplant. After the salt has had a chance to work it's magic, I let them sit for about 30 minutes, rinse the eggplant with water and dry with paper towels.

I cut the eggplant into bite size pieces and tossed it into a bowl with the chopped squash. I drizzled it all with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I poured the veggies onto a foil lined cookie sheet and into a 450 degree oven. I let them roast for about 20 minutes until they were cooked the way I wanted them.

I also wanted some meat in this dish. I bought some Chef Bruce Aidell's Sundried Tomato with Mozzarella Cheese smoked chicken and turkey sausage. I sliced it on an angle and heated it in a pan. Looks yummy right?

After the sausage was heated I added the jar of sauce to the pan. Then the roasted eggplant and squash went in. I drained my pasta and reserved some of the cooking liquid in case the ricotta needed to be thinned. I stirred in about a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese to the pasta. It wasn't too thick at all so I didn't need any of the cooking liquid. I put some pasta on the plate and finished it by topping it with the roasted veggie sausage sauce. This was quite yummy if I say so myself.

INGREDIENTS

1lb eggplant

1.25 lb squash

25 oz marinara sauce

1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese

Chef Bruce Aidell's Sundried Tomato with Mozzarella Cheese Smoked Chicken and Turkey Sausage

Hello again!

I have been on a bit of a break from blogging. I had quite a summer and needed some "me" time. Now that summer has come and gone, and fall is about to drop it's last leaf I am going to try to pick up on blogging.

I also need to apologize to two very close friends, M&C. We took a bunch of time and wonderful ingredients and made Beef Wellington. I saved the pictures of the event so I could blog about it later. As it turns out I did not save the pictures. Phooey!