My Friend Antonio's Divine Eggplant Pasta Recipe: A Classic Comfort Food

My friend Antonio is sharing her family recipe for divine eggplant pasta that's really classic comfort food, and I am so excited to show you how to do it. We're starting with dicing up our onions and our eggplant. You have one big onion, and we are going to put about a half a cup of olive oil in, then we're going to put a teeny bit of butter, just because I always think that rounds out the onion and the sauté and all that stuff.

As Antonio says, "Ton's a very natural cook," so we don't have to worry too much about timing. We let it cook down for about 15 minutes while we're getting the tomatoes blanched and ready. Excellent! The work in tandem is fabulous. Next, we need to prepare our tomatoes. There are a million ways to blanch a tomato, but Antonio is going to do the simplest way. These are pretty big, so we're not going to put all of them in; we'll leave some out. We're making about 12 that's good perfect. She can't help herself, and how long does those blanch for? Uh-oh! We want to bring it back up to a boil just like a couple of minutes.

Okay, great! Now we know we're going to do this all in two pans. We're going to actually um cook the pasta in the same pan that we blanched the tomatoes in; that's a good idea because it makes it easier for the clean-up and also gives a little bit of an earthy feeling to the pasta water. How much pasta are we making? We're making a pound and a half, okay! It looks like the eggplant is boiling down nicely. You know what we're going to do now: put in a couple of whole cloves of garlic, then add some basil leaves with no stems, oh I like this cook Italian cooking, yeah yeah yeah!

Just throw everything in, look at how pretty that is! Okay, next thing the last thing we're going to do with these tomatoes thankfully is we are going to put what we've got the actual kind of meat of the tomato, the second stage of the Tomato isn't that interesting so that's really the tomato puree exactly wow I can't wait to taste this. Okay great! All right, actually I love this idea of making the sauce and putting the pasta into the sauce this is when I like to put that kind of more coating cheese on it. This is that package mozzarella, take that package mozzarella, whole thing yeah, okay, put it in yep!

So what's next? We can put this beautiful mixed up cheesy egg planty pasta in a bowl, look at that see the cheese it's kind of gorgeous oh my God is this fantastic well here's Antonia's grandmother she really knew how to cook.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmy friend Antonio is sharing her family recipe for divine eggplant pasta that's really classic comfort food so you're going to show me how to do it I am so we're starting with we're dicing up our onions and our eggplant and so you have one onion I have one big onion all right we are going to put about a half a cup of olive oil in and then we're going to put a teeny bit of butter just cuz I always think that rounds out the onion and the sauté and all that stuff all right now we're going to put some eggplant in you can so this is like a five cups of eggplant is this too much this going to all fit in yeah I think that's good so we're going to let that cook down an Ton's a very natural cook so how long does this cook for about 15 minutes while we're getting the tomatoes blanched and ready excellent got work in tandem fabulous so next Tomatoes there's a million ways to blanch a tomato uh-oh and we're going to do the simplest way these are pretty big so we're not going to put all of these in we'll leave we're going to make about about 12 that's good perfect she can't help herself lucky and how long does those blanch for uh we want to bring it back up to a boil in just like a couple of minutes okay great here we go okay you know we're going to do this all in two pans we're going to actually um cook the pasta in the same pan that we blanched the tomatoes in that's a good idea it's just you know makes it easier for the clean up and it also just gives a little bit of an earthy feeling to the pasta water it's a lot of tomatoes how much pasta are we making we're making a pound and a half okay it looks like the eggplant is boiling down nicely you know what we're going to do now we're going to put in a couple of whole cloves of garlic okay we'll put a few leaves of the uh the basil into put some basil Bas leav no stems oh I like I like this cook Italian cooking yeah yeah yeah just throw everything in look at how pretty that is okay next we're going to peel the tomatoes exactly okay good we're going to core them and peel them and while I'm doing this you can be chopping up that cheese okay what's next I am squishing the tomatoes which is something I would do want get anywhere near but this is something I would do even if they were in the can you don't want giant chunks of tomato this is one messy job but it is the way to get them the best now the first thing that happens even when you have a can of tomatoes is there's liquid and what I like to do is get the liquid right in oh that's great so it makes a really good sauce yeah it makes a good sauce get and now you can put some salt to taste and pepper okay and a little Pinch of Sugar little Pinch of Sugar I have idea I have no idea it's just my grandmother did it then we're doing it too oh God this smells so good I know it took a little work but it's just incredible this is an amazing sauce Antonio Thank you Grandma all right so the next thing the last thing we're going to do with these Tomatoes thankfully is we are going to put what we've the actual kind of meat of the Tomato the second stage of the Tomato isn't that interesting so that's really the tomato puree exactly wow I can't wait to taste this okay great all right actually I love this idea of making the sauce and putting the pasta into the sauce this is when I like to put that kind of more coating cheese on it so this isack take that package mozzarella mozzarella the whole thing yeah okay put it in yep so what's next is we can put this beautiful mixed up cheesy egg planty pasta in a bowl okay look at that see the cheese it's kind of gorgeous oh my God is this fantastic well here's Antonia's grandmother she really knew how to cookmy friend Antonio is sharing her family recipe for divine eggplant pasta that's really classic comfort food so you're going to show me how to do it I am so we're starting with we're dicing up our onions and our eggplant and so you have one onion I have one big onion all right we are going to put about a half a cup of olive oil in and then we're going to put a teeny bit of butter just cuz I always think that rounds out the onion and the sauté and all that stuff all right now we're going to put some eggplant in you can so this is like a five cups of eggplant is this too much this going to all fit in yeah I think that's good so we're going to let that cook down an Ton's a very natural cook so how long does this cook for about 15 minutes while we're getting the tomatoes blanched and ready excellent got work in tandem fabulous so next Tomatoes there's a million ways to blanch a tomato uh-oh and we're going to do the simplest way these are pretty big so we're not going to put all of these in we'll leave we're going to make about about 12 that's good perfect she can't help herself lucky and how long does those blanch for uh we want to bring it back up to a boil in just like a couple of minutes okay great here we go okay you know we're going to do this all in two pans we're going to actually um cook the pasta in the same pan that we blanched the tomatoes in that's a good idea it's just you know makes it easier for the clean up and it also just gives a little bit of an earthy feeling to the pasta water it's a lot of tomatoes how much pasta are we making we're making a pound and a half okay it looks like the eggplant is boiling down nicely you know what we're going to do now we're going to put in a couple of whole cloves of garlic okay we'll put a few leaves of the uh the basil into put some basil Bas leav no stems oh I like I like this cook Italian cooking yeah yeah yeah just throw everything in look at how pretty that is okay next we're going to peel the tomatoes exactly okay good we're going to core them and peel them and while I'm doing this you can be chopping up that cheese okay what's next I am squishing the tomatoes which is something I would do want get anywhere near but this is something I would do even if they were in the can you don't want giant chunks of tomato this is one messy job but it is the way to get them the best now the first thing that happens even when you have a can of tomatoes is there's liquid and what I like to do is get the liquid right in oh that's great so it makes a really good sauce yeah it makes a good sauce get and now you can put some salt to taste and pepper okay and a little Pinch of Sugar little Pinch of Sugar I have idea I have no idea it's just my grandmother did it then we're doing it too oh God this smells so good I know it took a little work but it's just incredible this is an amazing sauce Antonio Thank you Grandma all right so the next thing the last thing we're going to do with these Tomatoes thankfully is we are going to put what we've the actual kind of meat of the Tomato the second stage of the Tomato isn't that interesting so that's really the tomato puree exactly wow I can't wait to taste this okay great all right actually I love this idea of making the sauce and putting the pasta into the sauce this is when I like to put that kind of more coating cheese on it so this isack take that package mozzarella mozzarella the whole thing yeah okay put it in yep so what's next is we can put this beautiful mixed up cheesy egg planty pasta in a bowl okay look at that see the cheese it's kind of gorgeous oh my God is this fantastic well here's Antonia's grandmother she really knew how to cook\n"