Pasta Salad with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Basil

Summary

Yield
SourceCook's Illustrated
Prep Time5 minutes

Description

The simple marriage of tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil. YUM!

Ingredients

  • 2 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
  • 1⁄4 c extra virgin olive oil
  • table salt and ground black pepper
  • 1⁄4 c lemon juice from 2 lemons
  • 1 t lemon zest
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or put through press
  • 1⁄2 t red pepper flakes
  • 1 lb bite sized pasta ( fusilli, farfalle...)
  • 2 large tomatoes cut into 1/2 inch chunks
  • 15 fresh basil leaves shredded

Instructions

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot over high heat. Meanwhile, brush eggplant with olive oil to coat very lightly and toss with salt and pepper to taste. Either grill eggplant until marked with dark stripes on both sides, about 15 minutes, or broil on baking sheet placed 4 inches from heating element, turning once, until tender and browned, about 7 minutes; cool to room temperature. 2. Whisk lemon juice and zest, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1 clove garlic, and red pepper flakes in large bowl; whisk in 1/2 cup oil in slow, steady stream until smooth. 3. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt to boiling water. Cook until pasta is al dente and drain. Whisk dressing again to blend; add hot pasta, cooled eggplant, tomato, remaining garlic, and basil; toss to mix thoroughly. Cool to room temperature, adjust seasonings, and serve. (Can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for 1 day; return to room temperature before serving.)

Ingredients

Eggplant

eggplant.jpg
Eggplants belong to the same family as tomatoes, peppers. These are all long season "hot" crops, and require a little  extra attention. This season we are have a new variety that looks like the classic Italian eggplant but with a bright deep pink color. We also grow a few Asian varieties as well as the classic Italian that is most familiar. 

Garlic

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Garlic is an amazing crop that not only adds wonderful flavor to anything you cook, it has many healing properties. I know many people that eat raw garlic to fight away colds and other symptoms. Garlic is also one of the easier crops for us to grow. We plant the seeds in early Fall and store them in the ground under a nice layer of mulch. a few weeks before we harvest the garlic from the ground we pick off the "scapes" which is essentially the flower. We snap this off to cause the plant to produce a larger bulb. The best part is you can eat the scapes. After we havest the garlic we cure it hanging in our barn so that it will store for the rest of the winter and be ready for planting again in the fall. Almost a third of our garlic crop is saved as seed for the next crop.

Tomatoes

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Tomatoes are one of those crops that we can never get enough of. It is one of the easiest to freeze or can for the winter. Nothing tastes better than a fresh tomato with fresh basil and a bit of mozzarella. We grow the standard red tomatoes, but we also grow many heirloom varities that range in flavor and size. Some heirloom tomatoes can grow to be over a pound. We also have cherry and paste tomatoes available in our u-pick field for our shareholders to pick for salads and sauces.

 

Our u-pick varieties are cherry and paste tomatoes as well as tomatillos

Basil

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We grow succesions of basil so there is always a fresh young crop for picking. We grow the traditional italian basil as well as purple, thai and lemon basil too.
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