Roasted Eggplant Pasta

a little weekend treat

Hello and welcome to A Newsletter! If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:

look at this, a little treat

It’s been a long week, but also hot and wet depending on where you’re tuning in from. I’ve been embracing a slower summer where my priorities include eating a lot of watermelon, trying to finish reading a book (not mine) and writing a new book (mine).

My watermelon recommendation is to buy a watermelon in whatever form it comes in, and then eat it throughout the day. Cubed from a bodega, whole to slice yourself into wedges or thick slabs, room temperature or refrigerated. All watermelon right now is very good even if its fine. This is my advice.

Like every other woman aged 32-55 I know, I’m currently reading All Fours. I’ve always loved Miranda July, but especially her novels. Her writing style reminds me of one of my first loves, Lydia Davis. The End of the Story (a novel) is so excellent, but might be out of print since I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Break it Down is a collection of short stories that will also give you what you need (but recommend seeking out the novel on some sort of late night internet search).

Writing a book the same time as trying to keep up with “real time” content is tough, but not impossible, but I’m not sure we are built to be working on 926 things at once. At 38, I think I’m finally understanding that on a deep, cellular level. I’m really excited about this next one, but you’ll have to wait until 2025 to hear any more about it from me.

So, a few days early for paid subscribers as a thank you for being here, here is next week’s summer pasta. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to wait to make it, and now, you don’t have to. It’s saucy and delicious and good at room temperature, which as you may know, is a huge selling point for me. It also is the answer to a lot of questions you might have in the summer, like: what do I do with all this eggplant? do I have to fry eggplant to make it taste good? what is a pasta that will travel well? how do I feed a crowd? how do I feed a crowd of non-meat eaters? what kind of pasta can I make that doesn’t rely on cheese to make it taste good? what if I only have a handful of tomatoes, will this pasta still taste good? what is a pasta that I can make the night before and take with me in the morning to the beach that will taste as good or better than the night I made it? how do I trick someone into liking eggplant, a commonly misunderstood and deeply under-appreciated summer vegetable?

If you’re familiar with any classic Italian dishes that feature eggplant (alla norma, eggplant parmesean, caponata) you will find this familiar— the compatibility of tomatoes and eggplant is undeniable— but I suppose the biggest difference here is the amount of eggplant involved. Roasted until deeply, unmistakably golden brown (if you’ve made my eggplant parm, it’s like that), it’s the bulk of the sauce, with just a dab of tomato paste (harissa or gochujang also work for a spicier version) and a handful of whatever fresh tomatoes you have languishing in your kitchen. Once you add the pasta and lots of pasta water to sort of rehydrate the eggplant, breaking it down entirely, the end result is a sauce that’s nearly creamy, almost custardy, in a way that almost makes me want to liken this to baba ganoush rather than any of its Italian counterparts.

Okay! Enjoy, have a good weekend, eat a lot of watermelon, make this pasta, read a book and see you next week.