In this easy roasted eggplant pasta recipe, eggplant, olives and artichoke hearts are baked until meltingly tender, and are then tossed with your choice of pasta and a flavorful olive oil and vinegar dressing. It’s super quick and the meaty texture of the roasted eggplant makes this a great vegetarian dinner for the week!
Make sure to check out the video for how to make it above the recipe card!
Why You Will LOVE This Eggplant Pasta Recipe:
When it comes to vegetarian dinners, you want something that is tasty and filling, but that also helps conquer that ‘meat’ craving. And eggplant is the PERFECT vegetable for this.
It’s meaty texture gives you that ‘chew’ your mouth has been waiting for, and it absorbs flavor like a sponge.
The roasted marinated artichokes contribute a pleasant balance of salt and vinegar that pairs perfectly with the simple eggplant pasta sauce.
A lot of Mediterranean eggplant recipes use tomato in their ingredients, which also tastes amazing (I mean, who doesn’t love a good tomato sauce on pasta?!). But for this recipe I decided to stick to a SUPER SIMPLE extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar sauce, or dressing. I find that using no tomato makes the flavors of the roasted vegetables stronger, and the raw extra-virgin olive oil is super healthy and recommended on a Mediterranean diet!
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Roasting The Eggplant
The roasted vegetables are the star of this show, so you want to make sure they are roasted to perfection! The key is to cook the eggplant so that it is caramelized on the outside and soft on the inside. You don’t want it to be too cooked through, or you will have soft, lifeless eggplant that will probably turn into mush once you toss it with the pasta.
- Cut the eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Place the cubed eggplant on a parchment lined baking sheet along with the kalamata olives and marinated artichoke hearts.
- Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt/pepper.
- Bake at 475 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. The eggplant should be fork tender, but not mushy!
How TO Make The Eggplant Pasta Sauce
Since we are keeping this recipe extremely simple, we only use two ingredients for the sauce, plus salt and pepper.
Just plain old extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar!
Health Benefits Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Known for it’s rich flavor and versatility in cooking, extra virgin olive oil is a favorite among many chefs and home cooks. In the Mediterranean specifically, good quality extra virgin olive oil is consumed daily!
Some of the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil are:
Quick Tip: When buying olive oil, look for the harvest date on the bottle, not the ‘sell by’ date. The more recent the harvest, the better! And there is less of a chance of purchasing olive oil nearing rancidity.
How To Store Leftover Pasta
Storing Leftovers – In order to prevent the eggplant from absorbing all of the oil and vinegar sauce, store them in separate containers in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. To re-heat, microwave the pasta and vegetables for around 50 seconds. Shake up the oil and vinegar sauce, then pour it over the top.
FAQ
Absolutely! Since the Mediterranean diet is simply eating the foods that people enjoy in the Mediterranean and less of a ‘diet‘, in the diet culture sense, you can absolutely enjoy pasta! It is just encouraged to only consume pasta in moderation, and not every day.
You know I love to keep things simple and allow you to make your own ingredient decisions in the kitchen, so ANY pasta that you have will work great. If you want to keep it a little healthier, try a spinach or chickpea pasta!
Since I tried to keep this really simple, we only use 7 ingredients(I consider salt/pepper one ingredient). But if you want to spice it up you ABSOLUTELY can! A little basil or parsley over the top would be amazing. And some fresh garlic in the oil and vinegar sauce would be absolutely delicious and would absorb into the eggplant nicely! And of course, if you want to add more vegetables, I encourage you to.
More Healthy Recipes
Here are a few more recipes that you might enjoy!
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7 Ingredient Eggplant Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant, stemmed and cut into 1" cubes
- 1 cup pitted kalamata olives
- 16 oz pasta of your choice, I used fusilliĀ (this may allow for leftovers, so decrease amount if you don't want leftovers!
- 1 cup marinated artichoke hearts
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- sprinkle of salt for the vegetables, pink Himalayan salt or salt of choice
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Ingredients For Sauce
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/8 tsp pink Himalayan salt, or the salt of your choice
- fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 475 degrees F. Cook pasta according to instructions on box. Line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
- Place the cubed eggplant, kalamata olives and artichoke hearts on the baking sheet. Drizzle with 3 tbsp of olive oil, and sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the eggplant is fork tender but not mushy.
- While the eggplant is roasting, mix together 3 tbsp of olive oil with 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar, 1/8 tsp of salt and fresh cracked black pepper. (if you have a container with a lid that you can shake, this works well to combine the ingredients!)
- When the eggplant, olives and artichoke hearts are done roasting, toss them with the cooked pasta of choice. Drizzle with oil and vinegar dressing and toss again. Serve and enjoy!
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