I love pasta! I love it for its convenience, versatility and friendliness. I can have it pretty much every day, but I try to limit to once a week. If I am running low on time, or when I am trying to save items from the fridge, pasta can act as my savior. If you’re looking for a healthy pasta dish with full on flavor then read on. The ingredients blend well together and the feta cheese is such a great add-on. I used eggplants and broccoli: eggplants for me, broccoli for the girls…oh and the light tomato sauce is mostly for my hub, not to mention all the nutritional benefits of the loaded garlic, lycopene benefits. In addition, the leftover sauce (non-cooked) can be used in meats to add flavor, or a salsa dip. The feta cheese is optional and my girls did opt out from the cheese, but my hub and I did not.
To read more on lycopene benefits, specially for your skin, I found this blog pretty helpful. http://lycopene-face-creams.blogspot.com/
Recipe:
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Ingredients:
- 16oz wheat spaghetti
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup pasta water
- 8 oz fresh broccoli florets
- 2 medium eggplants, sliced into 1/2 inch squares
- salt
- 9 garlic cloves
- 1 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup purple basil
- 28oz can whole tomatoes with basil
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- salt/pepper
- feta cheese
Directions:
Prepare pasta per packaging directions (around 6 minutes after the water comes to a boiling point)
Combine eggplants and broccoli in a small bowl and toss with some salt to the eggplants will release some of their water. This helps to get the bitterness out of the eggplants.
In a medium size deep pan heat olive oil and add the eggplants and broccoli. Cook for a few minutes, then add 1/4 cup pasta water and cover the pan with lid to help soften the vegetables for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
In the meantime, start preparing the herb-garlic mix. In a food processor, add in the garlic, parsley and basil and process the mixture.
Add half of the herb mix into the pan of vegetables and leave the other half inside the food processor. Add in the canned whole tomatoes process with herb mix until it’s fully processed.
In a small pot heat olive oil and add tomato sauce. Let it come to a boil and remove from heat. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
To serve combine the pasta with vegetables and top with tomato sauce and crumbles of feta cheese.
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