I mess with pasta sauces to the point of exhaustion- I don’t stick to recipes and am always adding or negating ingredients. Admittedly, its hard to break away from what I trust and it seems as though even when I try- my sauces emerge similar to one another. Its no good, an absolute slap in the face when so much effort has been put into doing it differently. I’ll dabble with bases- pesto, olive oil, tapenades, tomatoes and try to build on them to form something interesting… sometimes it works out other times not so much. With this pasta sauce I found a nice salty, sweet, spicy combination using some of my favorites…eggplant, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, capers and currants. The eggplant gets nice and soft, sponging up the other flavors. The currants add a tart sweetness and the capers, a briny saltiness. I get liberal on the red pepper flakes here because I like the heat, but of course, adjust it as you wish. Beautifully fresh cherry tomatoes are everywhere at the moment so I used a couple pints of those but you can also use another variety or even canned. As for the eggplant- you have to prep it first. You want to cut it into disks and lie them out on a cookie sheet, salt one side then let them sit for 20 min. Next, flip them over and repeat. Lastly, rinse off the slices and pat them dry. Supposedly that allows the eggplant to soak up more of whatever you’re adding them to by ridding them of some of their own excess moisture. But really… I can’t tell… just do it because its really not that hard and it may actually work. When ever I make pasta I toss the noodles in soy butter or margarine before I introduce the sauce. The butter makes it nice and creamy…you cant go wrong, really, adding butter to a recipe- any recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and saute until soft (about 10 minutes). Add garlic, saute 1 minute. Add Eggplant and saute, stirring occasionally, until tender (10-15 minutes).  Next add the tomatoes and let them cook until they soften.
2. Add the red pepper flakes, pine nuts, currants & capers- stir. Add the red wine. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes. Take the lid off and let the sauce cook down a bit until it thickens, stirring occasionally.
3. Cook your noodles. Toss the noodles in the sauce and top it liberally with some torn fresh basil. Salt & Pepper to taste. Eat.