* Rigatoni with Eggplant Basil Tomato Sauce & Riccota

Ingredients

500 gm rigatoni pasta
1 kg ripe tomatoes
1 big eggplant
1 large onion chopped
500 gm minced meat
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
10 garlic cloves sliced
¼ cup basil leaves
2 tbsp fresh thyme or oregano
½ tbsp paprika
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp garlic powder
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper



Directions

Prepare your eggplants by pealing them and cutting them into small cubes. Heat some olive oil and sauté the chopped onions in it, when the onions soften add the garlic and then the minced meat. Cook your meat and once it absorbs all its liquid add the eggplants, season with paprika, garlic powder and cinnamon. Peal your tomatoes and juice them and once the meat and eggplants are cooked add the tomatoes juice, the tomato pasta, the stock and the basil stripes. Let it cook on high heat till it comes to a boil and then taste again to make sure it doesn’t need any seasoning. Now, lower the heat and cover and the sauce cook very slowly till all gets mixed together, you need your eggplants to melt into the sauce and become part of it not stay in pieces.

While the sauce cooks, cook your pasta in boiling salted water but make sure you don’t cook it through as it will continue cooking in the oven while baking.

Now we assemble the dish, we mix the sauce with the pasta and we add the ricotta cheese, we put the pasta in the baking dish and we cover it with fresh mozzarella. Bake the dish till the pasta continues cooking and the cheese melt.