Cherry Tomato Eggplant Pasta

Name: Cherry Tomato Eggplant Pasta
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 medium eggplant, (diced); 10 ounces penne; 2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, (minced); 1 Fresno chili, (thinly sliced); 1 pint cherry tomatoes, (half kept whole and the rest sliced in half); 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; Chopped parsley for serving; Shaved Parmesan for serving

By Paige Adams

on Jul 21, 2022, Updated May 21, 2024

5 from 2 votes

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This easy cherry tomato eggplant pasta is packed with flavor and a kick of spicy heat with minced red chilies and garlic. It is a hearty vegetarian pasta recipe with only 10 ingredients that’s wonderful for weeknight dinners during summer when tomatoes and eggplants are both in season. I finish this pasta with Parmesan and fresh herbs.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Eggplant and Tomatoes are So Good Together (Especially in Pasta)
Ingredients & Substitutions
How To Make Tomato Eggplant Pasta
Serving
Leftovers & Storage
Tips for Sauteing Eggplant
Overall Recipe Tips
Recipe FAQs
More Eggplant Recipes
More Tomato Pasta Recipes
Cherry Tomato Eggplant Pasta Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This is an easy 10-ingredient recipe that takes advantage of the best of summer produce. Nothing compares to in-season tomatoes. That’s why you should be making uncomplicated dishes with fresh tomatoes during their peak.

Tomatoes are a vegetable (technically a fruit) that plays well with other veggies that are also really fruits. And that includes eggplant. Together they are wonderful sautéed in a pan to the point that they’re starting to fall apart. You end up with something chunky that’s not quite sauce, but beautifully dresses pasta.

You can’t beat the flavors in this recipe with garlic and fresh chillies. I always love going big on aromatics. Minced garlic is a must. Then I throw in sliced red chilies. No surprise, this pasta turns out spicy. Not that I ever get bored with tomato pastas, but adding eggplant and chilies to the usual noodles with olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese is a simple way to change things up.

Eggplant and Tomatoes are So Good Together (Especially in Pasta)

For this recipe, I take inspiration from the Italian classic pasta alla norma, a Sicilian dish with sautéed eggplant and tomato sauce that’s finished with ricotta salata.

Instead of making a full-on sauce, I just sauté small tomatoes. That’s one of my favorite ways to cook and eat them. This explains why I love burst tomato pasta on busy weeknights. Here this eggplant pasta lets the tomatoes be the ultimate duo, sharing the spotlight.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Ingredients including penne, eggplant, fresno chili, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper

This is what you need:

Penne pasta is my first choice for noodles because of their tubular share and their ridges that catch the wrinkled tomatoes and their juices. Rigatoni is another great option.
Eggplant should have shiny, taut skin. Avoid any that have soft spots. For this pasta recipe, look for a medium-sized eggplant.
Cherry tomatoes are great because they are small. I keep half of them whole and slice the rest of them in half. Then I end up with some tomatoes that fall apart and get smidge saucier. Others will wrinkle and maybe burst. You can use grape tomatoes instead, but they aren’t as juicy.
Fresno chilies have a medium level of heat. I take an entire chili and mince it for this pasta dish. If you are worried about too much spice, only include half the chili or just add a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Garlic, along with the chilies, adds so much flavor to the pasta.
Olive oil: Use high-quality extra virgin olive oil.
Salt & pepper: You will need salt to prep the eggplant. Then you will add both salt and pepper to season the pasta
Parmesan: I like thinly shaved Parmesan to finish the pasta. Pecorino Romano is another hard cheese that’s a more pungent option. To keep the recipe vegan, you can use nutritional yeast or a plant-based, dairy free substitute.
Parsley: For fresh herbs and something green, I sprinkle on chopped parsley for garnish, or you can add torn fresh basil leaves.

How To Make Tomato Eggplant Pasta

1. Salt the eggplant. Toss the diced eggplant with salt in a colander. Let it sit for 20 minutes. I like to do this in the sink or on a plate in order to catch the moisture that releases. Then gently pat the eggplant dry with a towel.

2. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Follow the recommended cook time on the package. You want the pasta to come out al dente and have some bite.

Salt the eggplant in a colander. Then cook the pasta in a pot on the stove.

3. Heat the olive oil in a big skillet on the stove. You should start cooking the eggplant and tomatoes while the pasta is simmering.

4. Sauté the eggplant. It’s best to do this in 2 batches, so you avoid overcrowding. It should turn out lightly browned on the outside and creamy in the middle in 3-4 minutes. Then put all the cooked eggplant back into the skillet.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet. Then saute the eggplant.

5. Add the garlic and chilies, sautéing until fragrant, about 1 minute.

6. Stir in the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Continue sautéing for a few minutes. The tomatoes will get wrinkled and juicy. Some of them will fall apart.

Stir the garlic and chilies into the eggplant into the skillet. Then add the tomatoes.

7. Fold the cooked pasta into the eggplant and tomatoes. If you time this just right, you should be able to use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta straight from the pot it was simmering in to the skillet.

8. Finish the pasta with chopped fresh parsley and shaved Parmesan cheese.

In the skillet, stir the penne pasta into the eggplant and tomatoes. Finish the pasta with chopped parsley and parmesan.

Serving

Serve the pasta in a bowl or on a plate and pair it with a simple salad like an arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette or a classic house salad. I also like piece of crusty bread to soak up some of the sauce.

Leftovers & Storage

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. You can eat the pasta cold and throw in greens to treat it like a pasta salad. Or you can warm it in a skillet on the stove with a little olive oil or in the microwave.

Tips for Sauteing Eggplant

I think it’s pretty safe to say that cooking tomatoes is a no-brainer, but cooking eggplant requires a little more prep. So here is a little advice on sautéing it:

Salt the eggplant. Don’t skip this step. By salting the eggplant, it helps draw out some of the extra moisture. Eggplant can turn out soggy, so you want get rid of any water you can. Also, the eggplant won’t be as likely to absorb all the oil in the skillet and turn out greasy.
Don’t crowd the pan. You’ll see that I sauté half the eggplant and then cook the other half. That’s because I don’t want my pan so full on that initial sauté that the eggplant steams instead of browning. It’s important to cook it in batches.
Check the doneness. Perfectly cooked eggplant will be soft, tender and smooth on the inside. If you undercook it, you will miss out on this texture and taste, which is what makes eggplant so tasty.

Overall Recipe Tips

Prep all your ingredient before you start cooking. This is a quick cooking pasta recipe where you want to have the pasta and sauce ready to put it all together.
Don’t overcook the pasta. Look at the package instructions for the suggested cook time. I always lean toward less than more time. Homemade pasta loses something when it’s too soft.
Timing is everything. While the pasta simmers on one burner, I make the sauce on another. Then I use a slotted spoon the pasta out of the pot and into the pan with the tomatoes and eggplant. Just enough starchy pasta water will cling to the noodles. The sauce is more forgiving with timing, so you can just turn off the heat if you are waiting on the pasta.

Recipe FAQs

Do you need to peel the eggplant?

No. Peeling eggplant is not required. As long as you have a fresh eggplant, the skin should not be bitter and salting it helps with that too.

Do you have to salt eggplant?

When I sauté eggplant, I like to salt it to get the water out. That’s because then it’s less likely to suck up all the oil in the pan and become greasy.