My wife and I teamed up to make this one, and if you’re a veggie lover who also enjoys classic pasta dishes, this one is for you! We wanted to make stuffed shells, but rather than using ricotta and egg as the filling like we normally do, we decided to jazz by inviting roasted eggplant and roasted garlic to the party! In the end, it gave the shells an additional depth of layered flavours, and it added some nutrients in the process…win/win!
Since we “hid” veggies in the dish itself, we opted to go with no side dish, but this would have gone excellently with some Roasted Asparagus, steamed broccoli, or a side salad.
Time: 70 Minutes
Ingredients:
- Shell Shaped Pasta
- Eggplant (We used half of a Sicilian Eggplant)
- Garlic
- Ricotta (We used half of a small low-fat container)
- An Egg
- Tomato Sauce
- Any Spices and Herbs you like. We used Red Pepper Flakes, Fresh Basil, and dried Oregano
- Mozzarella
- Optional: Mushrooms
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, line a baking sheet with some foil, and give it a quick oil spray.
- Rinse and cut your eggplant into large cubes, and place them on your baking sheet. Give them a quick olive oil spray.
- Pluck some garlic cloves from a head of garlic, and leave them in their wrappers. Place them on the eggplant sheet as well.
- Toss the baking sheet into the oven, and let it go for about 30 minutes.
- Near the end of the 30 minutes, start boiling some water in a pot.
- When the water comes to a boil, carefully add your pasta to it.
- As the pasta cooks and your eggplant cooking time is up, put your eggplant, raw mushrooms (quartered), egg, and roasted garlic (remove it from its wrapper first) into your food processor with your herbs and spices. Pulse to puree.
- In a bowl, fold your eggplant/mushroom mixture with your ricotta cheese.
- Pull out a casserole dish, and spread a little tomato sauce on the bottom.
- When your shells are cooked, carefully remove them from the water, and working one at a time, stuff each shell (see picture below), and line your casserole dish with your shells.
- Add a little tomato sauce on the top of the shells, and then layer on your cheese.
- Toss in the oven for 20 minutes until everything is hot, and the cheese is melted.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
