A mon avis, nothing is more gratifying that to come home and discover your next month’s Bon Appetit monthly subscription is waiting for you. The next two hours of your life will likely be spent oohing and aahing over the lovely delicious looking food. This month’s feature was “remarkably sumptuous baked pastas” – and I decided to try one of the vegetarian fares.
My vegetarian adventures this month have taught me that I need to sneak in protein and iron wherever I can in my food. Basil it turns out has a remarkable amount of iron (3.2 mg/100 grams of basil, just over 25% of your RDA) and pine nuts are full of protein (plus they are amazingly tasty). The eggplant gives the dish subsetance, perfect for those of learning to live in a meatless world. This dish – full of cheese, basil, and eggplant – certainly did the trick of delicious and nutritious.
The pasta recipe was a little more finicky that I am used to – nothing challenging, per se, but with a surprising number of components. It is also incredibly creamy – the first few bites I had were overwhelming (I confess to rarely eating a rose sauce made with whipping cream), but by the end of my first bowl, I was lapping up every last drop. The winning part of the dish is the topping: the pine nut crunch and mozzarella combo is superb.
Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch
(12 servings)
Ingredients:
Roasted Veggies
Olive Oil
1 unpeeled large egglplant, cut into ½ inch cubes (I actually used 3 chinese eggaplants because my grocery store was out of North American eggplant)
2 medium bell peppers, cut into ½ inch squares
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and pepper
Pine Nut Crunch:
1 cup fimly packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup Parmesan cheese,
¼ cup pine nutes
1 garlic clove
Pasta Sauce:
1 pound rigatoni
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated
½ cup Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat over to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss veggies to roast with oil and salt and pepper. Roast vegetables until tender, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in pot of boiling salted water until tender, but still firm to bite stirring occasionally. Drain and return to pot.
In a food processor combine all ingredients to make pine nut crunch. Blend until crumbly and set aside.
Create rose sauce by blending tomatoes, cream, basil, and garlic until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix roasted veggies with sauce, Parmesan cheese, and pasta in pot. Transfer to 13x9x2inch baking dish. Sprinkle with pine nut topping followed by mozzarella. Bake pasta until heated through, 25 to 35 minutes, and topping is brown and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes and serve!
– Catherine
Looks delicious. Will try this when I have the time and ingredients.
Thanks for sharing and keep those recipes coming!
Take care.
gdw
I love the way you have used pine nuts in eggplants. We have a favorite Italian restaurant in New York City and I hope they can make this. Otherwise, I will try to make it.
yum, I love the idea of a pesto-like topping! I think this would be equally great with substitutions of other nuts, and different types of greens blended up instead of the basil!
Sounds so good! Must try it! Congrats on being FP!
yummy! always looking for more ways to use eggplant, sounds and looks amazing!
Why question Canadian cuisine? Doesn’t everyone know Canada’s national dish is moose and maple syrup? 🙂
We’re currently developing our version of moose and beaver braised in maple syrup, so stay tuned!
The thing we love about Canadian cuisine is that it borrows so much from the everywhere around the world – it gives us an excuse to spend as much time cooking bumbleberry pie, Jiggs dinner, and Nanaimo squares as we can adventuring into curries, canard a la orange, and pad thai!
Plus, for a blog written by two Canadians, gourm(eh?) has a certain ring to it!
It’s actually a Nanaimo Bar. The rest of the world calls it a square. 🙂
[…] Rigatoni with Eggplant […]
I saw this in the latest issue, but have such a love hate relationship with so much dairy. Could one afford to cut down the cheese a bit, or maybe even reduce the cream in the recipe?
Despite all the work, I am sure you took a nice exhale of satisfaction after the first few bites!
I was of the same opinion about so much dairy, persevered despite my hesitations, and it took me a few bites to adjust to the intense creamininess myself (although loved it by the end)!
To decrease the dairy, you could cut the cream in half (and even then, I think you could get away with substituting milk for the cream). As for the cheese, there are two types in the topping (Parmesan and mozarella), so you could probably choose just one to include depending on your personal preference (for a more bread crumb like topping, the Parmesan would be the way to go; for a gooier topping, I would try the mozarella, and cut the Parmesan from the pesto). Good luck!
This is delish! Thanks for sharing!
That looks super delicioso! We love pasta at my house, and we don’t need meat to enjoy it either. This will be a great one to add to our menus. Thanks for sharing. Rigatoni is one of my favorites!
YUm that sounds delicious. I love pine nuts but wish they weren’t so expensive.
[…] 1. Rigatoni with eggplant & pine nut crush […]
looks great!
Yum-my! You could try substituting evaporated skim milk for the whipping cream? Sacrilege I know! but I’ve used it before and only noticed a slight difference – especially with all the flavours going on.
Thanks Barb, I confess I’ve never used evaporated skim milk – I will have to give it a try!
I am going to try this, taking your suggestions for decreasing the richness of the dairy a bit. Thanks for sharing.
Katharine
OMGosh this must have a zillion calories!!! Beware the day you turn 40 and remember this random post—–> I use to eat like this and all was well UNTIL I turned 40. I was warned and did not listen. You have been warned. Enjoy while you can. 🙂
This looks delicious!
This will be my pasta dish this week, thanks!
I think this would be equally great with substitutions of other nuts, and different types of greens blended up instead of the basil!
Easy to make, delicious. I also used skim mozzarella and light cream…I will definitely come back to this and would serve to company without a second thought.
Ooh la la….sounds as yummy as u have described…can’t wait to try it…good post…cheers
trying this
hmmm…yumy nice info
so..i can try in my homeeeee ^^
wow that looks good. im gonna try this out this week. im a big fan of rigatoni. nice food post
This is delish! Thanks for sharing!
Looks yummy and thank you for making a pasta fan’s day great 🙂
mmmmmm
looks yummy!
will give it a try soon
congrats on being freshly pressed
Sounds so good! Must try it!
it is good
Looks Yummy for a Vegetarian Dish 🙂
I dont need to look for recipes on how to cook they already have it here,,..
How bizarre that a recipe on the Today show yesterday morning also featured eggplant and pine nuts? Must be a sign that I MUST PARTAKE!
🙂
Great recipe. When I find pine nuts that aren’t $15.99 per pound, I may just try it!
I know – pine nuts are ridiculous expensive. My guess is that you could also subsitute walnuts or even almonds to privde the crunch!
Mmmm…yum. The recipe seems easy enough. I might have trouble getting pine nuts so I wonder what alternatives I can use…(feel free to suggest any). Can’t wait till the invention of ‘Smellovision’ so I can know what the aroma is like! Congrats on getting Freshly Pressed 🙂
Good!!!!!It looks delicious!!!!!!!!
yummy!
I have been a pasta fan since I can remember and I got recipes of my own, but I love the way you made this pasta recipe with nuts, and since I love cheese, this is going to be another piece in my table. Wonderful!
http://www.yoursmartkitchen.com
Ooh… fabulous compfort food…this is going in my recipe book!
I can picture it already- some lazy Sunday afternoon, red wine and this… fabulous thanks!
look yummy ^_^
Looks so delicious!!!
I had a similar lunch today 🙂
these are penne not rigatoni, another type of pasta very, very good!
congratulations for the recipe !
mmm the more cheese the better!!
I must make this! Sounds incredible and perfect for an easy dinner. I love pasta bake and this sounds like a great twist on the norm
thanks for sharing
http://velvetandtea.com
looks delish cant wait to make it myself!!!! so lovely pics!!!
Looks delicious – the pine nut top doesn’t sound great, but it would be worth a try 🙂
Farout! Don’t know that I can handle the pine nuts for I am anti-nut combined with food kinda guy. The rest looks fabulous and I hope to try this recipe very soon.
thanks for the post…
Kevin
Sounds Yummy and Looks delicous. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
yummy!!! i wish i can smell it by just looking at the picture.. i’d surely love to eat that. 🙂
I’m trying to find better more healthy fare for my family and that looks amazing and I bet it tastes the same. Thanks!
Love the pine nut crunch idea! What a fresh twist! Thanks for the post!
Hello there, You have performed an incredible job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this site.
Wow that looks yummy, excellent recipe and that photo looks great as well
Raymund
http://angsarap.wordpress.com
This looks so good I want to start banging the pots together out in the kitchen even though it is almost 11 pm but will hold off until tomorrow…thanks for the inspiration
Wow it more palatable.
Thanks for the info. Very good post!
I saw this in the latest issue, but have such a love hate relationship with so much dairy. Could one afford to cut down the cheese a bit, or maybe even reduce the cream in the recipe?
Despite all the work, I am sure you took a nice exhale of satisfaction after the first few bites!
I was exactly the same way when I first saw it! It does come out remarkably creamy, so I definitely think you could substitute the cream for milk (and even with than cut it in half).
As for the cheese, you could probably get away with less of the mozarella in the topping, but I recommend holding onto the Parmesan!
Enjoy!
Um, about to make this for the fourth time in four weeks. Not as rich as it sounds….and easy to adjust however you want. You can increase the veggie-to-past ratio if you want. Fantastic recipe.
[…] Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch « Gourm(eh)? The next two hours of your life will likely be spent oohing and aahing over the lovely delicious looking food. This month's feature was “remarkably sumptuous baked pastas” – and I decided to try one of the vegetarian fares. […]
[…] Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch – The post that saw us freshly pressed (!!!!), this rich pasta casserole is keeper. You'll […]