Cake, Batter, and Bowl

Summer Veggie Pasta with an Eggplant and Ricotta Sauce

Main Dishes

Summer Veggie Pasta with an Eggplant and Ricotta Sauce

Summer Veggie Pasta with an Eggplant and Ricotta Sauce

Our apartment balcony is filled with foliage. My plant tending days ended after the demise of Petey, a plant my good friend Britt and I attempted to care for in college, so I’m lucky that Apolinaras has a green thumb! He’s already dreaming of the day we have a real yard, but for now is happy tending his mini-vegetable garden. He has six different herbs growing that I frequently use, along with jalapeno and banana peppers and cherry tomatoes. He also planted an avocado pit that has sprouted, so we’ll see how that goes. Anyway, our cherry tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen and we’ve just been popping them straight into our mouths off the tree every day. But this weekend our little plant was particularly bountiful and he managed to harvest a whole handful of cherry tomatoes! When he brought them in on Saturday and proudly announced that we had enough to use in a recipe, I immediately knew I wanted to make a pasta dish packed with summer veggies.

This pasta is mixed with fresh zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and chicken, but my favorite part is the rich and creamy sauce, which I made by blending roasted eggplant, red onion, garlic, herbs, and ricotta together. This is one of those dishes that is even better the next day!

I also wanted to share the other foodie project I worked on this weekend. I went crazy with different icing colors and decorated sugar cookies for a surprise baby shower for my labmate Sima. Big thanks to Michelle and Julie for posting such easy to follow decorating directions! This was my first time working with royal icing and I was pretty proud about how cute the cookies turned out!

Summer Veggie Pasta with an Eggplant and Ricotta Sauce
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 eggplant, cut into small chunks (mine was a little over a pound)
1 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
2 zucchinis, cut into small chunks
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta in a colander, return it to the pot, and keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet and sauté eggplant for 5 minutes. Add red onion and cook 5 to 7 minutes, or until veggies are soft, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute. Place eggplant mixture, ricotta cheese, vinegar, salt, oregano, and basil in a food processor. Pulse until a smooth sauce forms.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in the same skillet over medium heat and sauté zuchinni for 5 minutes or until tender. Remove zucchini and add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Add chicken and sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked and no longer pink in the center.

Mix pasta, sauce, chicken, zucchini, and tomatoes until the sauce evenly coats all ingredients. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 449 calories, 11.5g fat, 10.7g fiber, 34.4g protein per serving
Cost: $1.43 per serving

Caramelized Shallot Apricot Chicken Pizza

Shannon and I went on a shopping mission a couple months ago in search of mini-cheesecake pans from the Williams Sonoma outlet. We couldn’t find the pans, but the trip wasn’t a complete loss because Shannon scored a gorgeous stainless steel sauté pan and I scooped up...

Toasted Almond and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

Please don’t judge this recipe by the picture. It’s not the best looking pasta dish to begin with and my hopeless photography skills definitely don’t help do it any justice, but I can guarantee you that it’s worth making! I was recently asked whether I usually end up...

Citrus Glazed Salmon

When I got home from New Orleans this week, I found 3 salmon fillets that my hubby had defrosted in the fridge. Apolinaras is a great cook and loves to grill and throw meals together with whatever is laying around. Because he doesn’t ever follow recipes or write...

Spinach Sauce Pasta with Shrimp

Work has been more hectic than usual lately so I was trying to brainstorm ways to be more efficient when a light bulb went off and I realized that I could save a bunch of time if I started running home from work a few times a week! Not only do I get a great workout...

Maple Pecan Salmon over Roasted Potato, Apple, and Bacon Hash

I don’t usually buy a lot of produce at Costco, since it’s tough for just the two of us to eat our way through their large packages of fruits and veggies before it all spoils (although I do regularly make an exception of their Brussels sprouts and berries because we...

Summer Veggie and Chicken Lasagna with Goat Cheese Sauce

I think I’ve mentioned before that I often devour leftovers for dinner because I tend to get home pretty late and I'm always starving when  I walk in the door. So, when I do manage to find time to cook during the week, I’m usually whipping up a meal to enjoy the...

Thai Burgers with Plum Sauce and Spicy Slaw

I’ve slowly been working on a few recipes to go with my recap posts about our amazing trip to New Zealand, but I haven’t even started to go through all our pictures. The task just seems too overwhelming...but today I have a little teaser post – Thai turkey burgers...

Fiesta Potato Pie

I think casseroles, like meatloaf, tend to get a bad rap, which is sad because not all casseroles contain “cream of whatever” soup - many are quite delicious! It’s been chilly, rainy, and depressing in Boston lately so I decided to cheer myself up by making a savory...