Recipe of the Week #7

After returning from a trip to the east, I was eager to get into our garden to pull some weeds and pick veggies for cooking.

Many of my favorite dishes to prepare in late summer and early fall include a tasty combination of tomatoes, eggplants and summer squash. Last night I cooked my first dish of this sort of the year because I needed to use some summer squashes and an eggplant from our CSA. I also had some leftover pasta on hand, as well as one last container of last year's tomato sauce. I combined them all into the dish described below.


Eggplant and Summer Squash Pasta Bake

Ingredients
Several small summer squash and eggplants
Tomato sauce
Bread crumbs
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions
Brush bottom of a baking dish with olive oil and sprinkle a thin layer of bread crumbs over the bottom. Add a layer of pasta above the breadcrumbs. Dice eggplants and squash into approximately 1 inch cubes. Toss cubes with salt and olive oil, then place on a baking sheet. Put baking sheet in the oven and broil until they start to brown. Stir occasionally to ensure that multiple sides have browned. Keep an eye on the oven to make sure they don't burn. When browned, spoon the squash and eggplant on top of the pasta.


Sprinkle Parmesan and cover vegetables with tomato sauce. Add another layer of pasta, another layer of tomato sauce, then more breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Place into the oven and bake at 350 until breadcrumbs and cheese begin to brown on top. Serve immediately.