Garlic Girl’s Eggplant and Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

Eggplant, I love you! I’ve had this eggplant sitting here for a couple days and I was just waiting for the right inspired moment. Well, I woke up this morning thinking I wanted to see my kids, especially since my girl’s been gone in Miami all week. So what better way to lurn them over, thank to tempt them with food. Well, hopefully they want to see thier mommy anyway, but I still wanted to cook for them. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but when I spotted the Italian Sausage and the bow tie pasta, it all came together. Here’s the result! By the way, the oldes one is surfing, but the middle son is coming for lunch, whooohahahaaha. ; )

Garlic Girl’s Eggplant and Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

1lb Italian Sausage (preferably without the casing)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 1b pasta – preferable something chuncky like bow ties (farfalle)
1 round mozarella cheese, cubed
handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
at least 6 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 zucchini, cut in pieces
1 small eggplant
at least 1/4 c reggiano parmigiano or pecorino romano shredded or grated cheese. I always prefer to grate or shred my own when I’m ready to use (but you don’t need to).
a few tbls extra virgin olive oil
dried basil, oregano, parsley

Preparation
– Preheat oven to 375
– In a large fry pan, heat olive oil and saute onion for about 5 minutes.
– Set aside a large bowl to add the veggies as they cook. Now remove the onions when done and add to that bowl
– Add a little more olive oil to the fry pan and saute the zucchini until lightly browned. Add to the bowl with onions.
– Do the same with the eggplant.
– After the veggies have been lightly cooked, brown the italian sausage (same way you would brown ground beef).
– Remove and drain on paper towels before adding to the bowl with the veggies. You don’t need to drain, but if you’re sensitive about the oil, go right ahead.
– Add a little more olive oil to the pan and saute the garlic for about 30 seconds and then throw in the basil for another 10 seconds.
– Add the tomatoes and loosen all the good stuff at the bottom of the pan so all the flavors start to infuse into the tomato sauce.
– Add salt, the dried seasonings (basil, parley, oregano).
– Now add all the veggies and sausage into the pan with the sauce and let cook about 10 minutes. Set aside.
– While that’s cooking, boil and large pot of water for the pasta and cook the pasta according to package directions, except remove when the pasta is still a little chewy (al dente).
– In a smaller, but taller casserole dish, add a layer of the sauce and veggies.
– Now add a layer of the pasta
– On top of the pasta, add chunks of mozarella cheese evenly, along with some of the hard, grated cheese (parmigiano).
– Add another layer of the sauce, veggies and sausage (of course they are all in one now).
– Continue this until the casserole dish is full.
– Make sure the top layer has the sauce with lots of cubes mozarella cheese positioned all across the top.
– Add some dried parsley on top of that and cover with tin foil.
– Bake for about 40 minutes until bubbly – check and push down and zucchini or eggplant pieces that might be sticking out. Add a little more of the cheeses and continue to bake uncovered for another 15 minutes or so until the cheese begins to brown and look all delishly gooey.

Serving suggestion:
Serve hot with salad and some crusty bread!
Enjoy!