After been married for 10 years and having 5 kids, I finally decided I needed to become a better cook. I was sick of making the same old thing all the time and being afraid to try new recipes. I'm still not a pro but I'm getting better every day. My goal is to be able to make my own recipes up and just be able to throw things together and it taste good. For now I'm just finding YUMMY recipes through blogs and recipe books and I thought making a blog with all my favourites would be fun. So, ENJOY!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Eggplant Sausage Casserole

As I quickly looked through one my new cookbooks this meal caught my eye because I'm a HUGE pasta fan, especially things like this. The name of the recipe threw me off a little though because I wasn't seeing any eggplant, plus I had never had any before but I thought it was worth a try because it looked so good. I thought it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS and so did most of my family. I could barely taste the eggplant, I couldn't really even tell you still what eggplant tastes like. My husband said he could taste it and my picky Maddie didn't really like the eggplant (I don't think she could even taste it, I think it was just her knowing it was something different) or the ricotta cheese. This will for sure be something that I make again though, I will probably not add the eggplant, only to please my crazy family because I thought it was YUMMY :) It did make quite a lot though so I think next time I may split it half and freeze one of them.
1 pkg. (16 0z.) penne pasta
2 lbs. Italian sausage
1 med. eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. paprika
1 carton (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
4 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook sausage over med. heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside. In the same skillet, saute the eggplant and onion in olive oil. Add garlic, cook 1 minute longer. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, basil and paprika; simmer partially covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add strained pasta and sausage and mix well. Spread half pasta mixture into a 9x13 greased baking dish. Spread with ricotta cheese and then top with half of mozzarella cheese. Add remaining pasta mixture and cover. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving and then ENJOY :)
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