Summer Eggplant Pasta

Despite the ongoing rain, I'm determined to make it summer.  During the day, I ponder critical issues such as, should we expect a flood of the Danube canal due to all this ridiculous rain? Will the hills be more alive with condensation? More importantly, is this excess water affecting the trinkwasserqualiteat???  These are the critical issues of the day.

But when not consumed with the critical issues of the day, I've been taking advantage of the summer produce, to at least pretend like sunshine is in the kitchen.  Put together a little something last night, which was not at all complicated - the idea came from one of my favorite go-to cookbooks: Kitchen, by Michelle Cranston.  I picked it up once when we had just a little bit left over on a Crate and Barrel gift card and I thought the pictures were pretty (which, honestly, is how I choose all of my cookbooks), and use it regularly, especially for cakes and appetizers.  More than anything, I use the "kitchen bench" pages, where they don't even give recipes but just go through bullet points of how to put several pantry ingredients for a meal, dessert, appetizer etc. Very quick, very good, go-to resource.  Here's the "recipe" for the eggplant pasta...

Ingredients:

• Pasta - used spaghetti but will likely go with penne next time
• 1 eggplant, diced/chopped
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 can San Marzano tomatoes (dice if not already)
• 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
• Olive oil - estimate to taste I guess - i threw in a couple of tablespoons

Recipe:

• Sautee crushed garlic clove in olive oil until fragrant
• Add chopped eggplant and red pepper and sautee until soft and "mushy" (according to book)
• (in meantime, heat water for pasta, cook pasta)
• Add can of tomotoes, warm and season to taste
• Toss in pasta once drained
• Sprinkle liberally with fresh parmesan

Voila!