Pasta with eggplant ragù

Name: Pasta with eggplant ragù
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Rigatoni 11.3 oz; Eggplant 14 oz; Tomato purée 3.3 cups; Yellow onions 1; Celery 1 rib; Carrots 1; Red wine 3.5 oz; Tomato paste 4 tsp; Soy sauce 1 tbsp; Bay leaves to taste; Sage to taste; Thyme to taste; Rosemary to taste; Extra virgin olive oil 3 tbsp; Fine salt to taste; Black pepper to taste

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Serving: 4
Cost: Low

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PRESENTATION

Pasta with Eggplant Ragù starts where a bolognese does — a soffritto of celery, carrot, and onion — then takes two deliberate turns: the eggplant goes into the blender raw, and a splash of soy sauce joins the tomato. Blending the eggplant before it ever touches heat is what gives the sauce its convincingly meaty body, replicating the coarse, yielding texture of ground meat without any.

The soy sauce isn't a shortcut so much as a deliberate deepener, pushing the sauce into the kind of savory intensity that usually takes hours of braising. Rigatoni is the right call here — the ridges and hollow center hold the full-bodied sauce in a way that smoother formats can't. Despite the bolognese-style structure and the satisfyingly dense result, this eggplant ragù is a summer pasta at heart, built around eggplant at its peak.

How to prepare Pasta with eggplant ragù

To prepare the pasta with eggplant ragf9, first roughly chop the eggplant into cubes 1. Transfer the eggplant cubes to a food processor 2 and blend until finely minced 3. Set aside.

Clean and finely dice the celery 4, carrot 5 and onion. Put the vegetables in a saucepan with a splash of olive oil 6.

Let them soften over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes 7, then add the blended eggplant 8. Sauté for a few minutes and season with salt 9.

Deglaze with the wine 10 and let it evaporate, then add the soy sauce 11 and the tomato paste 12. Mix well.

Pour in the strained tomatoes (passata) 13 and combine everything. Tie the herbs together with kitchen twine and place the bundle in the sauce 14, then add another pinch of salt. Stir again and let simmer over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes with the lid slightly ajar 15.

When there are 10 minutes left, cook the pasta in boiling salted water 16. Drain the pasta a couple of minutes before it's done and transfer it directly into the ragf9 17, from which you will have removed the herb bundle. Finish cooking while stirring 18, adding hot water if necessary.

With the heat off, season with freshly ground black pepper 19 and finish with a drizzle of olive oil 20. Serve your pasta with eggplant ragf9 immediately 21, perhaps with a sprinkle of grated cheese!