Tomato Sauce with Eggplant and Spinach

This is one of my favorite weeknight meals to make, it's quick, healthy, filling and delicious! I've made this dish with just spinach as well as just eggplant (it's also great with zucchini, or broccoli) but there's something Mediterraneanly pleasing to me about the taste and color of eggplant and spinach.

For those of you who are (or cook for) spinach haters, this is a dish that offers the healthy benefits of the green without an obtrusive, or bitter taste. I've served this dish to a spinach-phobic friend who told me that he, "actually didn't mind the spinach", a big step for him!

Like all pasta dishes, adding fresh basil at the end takes it to a new level, but if you don't have fresh basil on hand, (and just how many of us do on a weeknight in winter time?) just substitute 1 tablespoon of dried basil added with the other spices.


Tomato Sauce with Eggplant and Spinach
Serves 2-3

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion- chopped
4 cloves of Garlic-minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tsp sugar
Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
1/2 of a medium to large eggplant (@ two cups)
1 cup of frozen spinach- thawed and drained
1/2 cup red wine
1-15 oz can of diced tomatoes
@ 3 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
grated parmesan cheese to taste

Cooked Pasta (gluten-free)
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• Wash the eggplant, discard the top and bottom. Lay it on it's side and slice it in about 1/2 inch round pieces
• Sprinkle all of the pieces liberally with salt on both sides, and drain for about 1/2 hour standing up, leaning against the sides of a colander
• Using a paper towel, dab away the moisture and salt from the eggplant slices
• Chop the eggplant into bite-sized (@1/2") cubes
• Heat a frying pan with the olive oil to medium high
• Add the onion, saute until translucent, then add the garlic, cook for another minute or two
• Next add the oregano, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes (optional), mixing all together well
• Add in the chopped eggplant, stirring frequently to coat the pieces with the spices and olive oil
• Next add the spinach, mixing it in well
• Add the red wine, tomatoes and sugar, stir and bring to a boil
• Once boiling reduce heat to simmer and cook, uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Serve over cooked pasta, sprinkle with the fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese, and enjoy!

Tomato Sauce with Eggplant and Spinach

Basil Pesto Sauce

Fresh basil is absolutely my favorite herb! I always grow it during the warm months to have a few pinches of it to grace all of my pasta and Thai dishes. But whenever I get a hold of a big bunch of it I just think of one thing: Pesto! I think of pesto sauce as an inspired mixture of explosive flavors all designed to showcase the incredible basil. Usually I like to find bunches of basil at the local farmers market, but in the winter I'm stuck buying it at the local supermarket, where it's often wilted and expensive.

The other day my wife informed me that lately everything I've been cooking is "heavy". And she's right, I'm guilty as charged! I guess I've kind of been embracing the whole winter cooking feeling with soups, stews and casseroles, dark sauces and root vegetables. To combat this, she went shopping the other day she came back with a full container of good looking basil, and I knew what she had in mind, a little pesto to lighten up our kitchen (and just on time to correspond with 70 degree weather that's blown in to the Carolina's this week).
Pesto sauce can be used for a multitude of purposes, but my favorite an the simplest is just to toss it with some pasta. The best gluten-free pasta that I've found is Tinkyada rice pasta. It has a good, unobtrusive flavor and won't (like most GF pastas) break apart, even if overcooked.


Basil Pesto Sauce

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 whole cloves garlic
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

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• Spread the pine nuts on a baking pan and toast in a pre-heated oven at 325º (or toasted oven)for about 3 minutes or until slightly browned, shaking the pan occasionally. Careful not to let them burn.
• Pack the basil leaves into the food processor.
• Put the parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, toasted pine nuts and olive oil and crushed red pepper (optional) into the food processor.
• Blend all together in the food processor until well mixed, about 1-2 minutes.
• Use about two tablespoons pesto per serving of pasta, toss together,sprinkle with fresh cracked black pepper and a little fresh grated parmesan cheese. Mangia!

Basil Pesto Sauce

Layered Vegetable Baked Pasta (gluten-free Vegetarian Lasagna)

Now that it's officially winter I'm thinking more and more about baked and roasted dishes. And one of my all-time favorite baked dishes is lasagna. I could eat lasagna three times a day and not get tired of it, (and have!). The only trouble is getting a hold of gluten-free lasagna noodles. I've seen and used them before, but most stores only carry gluten-free- penne, spaghetti, and sometimes rotini. Not a big deal, I simply substitute a layer of penne pasta for the lasagna noodles. It still tastes great, the only downside it that you can't officially call it lasagna.

Last night I got home from visiting the in-laws for Christmas. I was tired and was planning to heat up some left overs, but while taking inventory of my fridge I found an eggplant that would soon be on it's way out if I didn't use it soon. That got me thinking. Next I found some ricotta and mozzarella cheese, and that was all the inspiration I needed to cook up a tray of baked goodness!

First I made a simple tomato sauce, here is a link to my recipe. link to my recipe. If you don't have time you can used a good jar of sauce. I recently used Classico sweet basil sauce and it wasn't too bad. I made this dish with eggplant, green peppers and spinach, but you could also use zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, or just about any other vegetable that strikes your fancy. Or you can substitute 1 lb. of ground beef seasoned with garlic and onions for the vegetables to make it a meat lasagna.

Layered Vegetable Baked Pasta (Gluten-Free Vegetarian Lasagna)
Serves 3-4

8 oz GF Penne pasta
2 cups tomato sauce
olive oil
12 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 small eggplant (or 1/2 large eggplant)
1/2 large green pepper, cut into bite sized strips
1 cup frozen spinach OR 3 cups fresh spinach
1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp fennel seed
Salt and pepper


5" x 9" x 2.75"(deep) baking pan

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Preparation:
• Wash the eggplant and cut it into @ 1/4 inch round slices. Salt each side of the eggplant and lean each piece against the side of a colander to drain for 40 minutes.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the GF pasta until not quite done, strain and set aside.
• Using paper towels wipe away the moisture and salt from each side of the eggplant, sprinkle the eggplant with pepper, dried basil, and oregano. (about 1 Tsp of each)
• Heat a frying pan with @ 2 Tbsp olive oil to medium, saute the eggplant, cooking for about 5 minutes on each side add more olive oil of the pan gets too dry.
Put the cooked eggplant aside, in the same hot pan heat another Tbsp of olive oil. Add the green pepper strips, and sprinkle with the remaining, dried basil, oregano, parsley and fennel seed as well as salt and pepper to taste. cook for 2 or 3 minutes.
• Stir the frozen spinach in with the pepper and spices, mix all together and cook until the spinach is fully thawed (if using fresh spinach cook until all is wilted). set aside.
• Mix the egg in a bowl, add the ricotta cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, mix all together well.

Assembly:
• Preheat oven to 350º
• Using a 5" x 9" x 2.75"baking pan assemble the layers in the following order.
•1/3 of the tomato sauce
• 1/2 of the pasta
• 1/2 of the spinach/pepper mixture
• 1/ 2 of the cheese mixture
• 1/2 of the eggplant laid flat
• 1/3 of the tomato sauce
• Remainder of the pasta
• Remainder of the spinach/pepper mixture
• Remainder of the cheese mixture
• Remainder of the eggplant laid flat
• Remainder of the Sauce
• top with 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

• Cook covered at 350º for 30 minutes covered, cook an additional 15 minutes uncovered.
• Let it cool about ten minutes before serving. Mangia!

Layered Vegetable Baked Pasta (gluten-free Vegetarian Lasagna)