• 1 large eggplant
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 large onion
• 4 tbsp minced garlic (yum!)
• 1/4 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp savory leaves
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 can of cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• Some form of pasta

I bought most of the produce at my local farmer’s market the day before and the rest of the ingredients the day of.  I’ve been reading about how quickly fruits and vegetables loose nutrients after they’re harvested, so I recommend buying fresh and local if possible; eggplant in particular can turn bitter if it isn’t used within two days of buying it.

Because I’m so green at this, I began my great cooking experiment by inviting my friend Katie over to cook with me; this was an excellent idea on my part: she is a good cook AND she brought wine.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to cook immediately–mainly because I don’t know my grocery store well enough yet.  I mean, really,  you would think the aisle labled “beans and rice” would have all the beans in it, wouldn’t you?  But no, not at my store.  The beans and rice aisle has dried beans and cans of black beans, while the canned vegetable aisle has the canned beans.  I ended up buying a bag of great northern beans because I thought the directions said that they only needed to be boiled for about 10 minutes before cooking with them.  What the directions really said was that they had to soak in a bowl of water for an hour before boiling; I realized this just as Katie arrived.  We let the beans soak while we opened the wine.

I had never cooked with eggplant before, and I’m sure I would have been slightly concerned about the quality of my particular eggplant if Katie hadn’t been there to reassure me that eggplants look like this inside:

We diced it, skin intact, along with the peppers, the onion, and garlic, and then sauteed all of it over medium heat in a covered pan for 5-10 minutes.  These vegetables take up a lot of space, and the pan I used wasn’t quite big enough, so I sauteed them closer to the 10 minute range.  By then, everything had soften and cooked well.  Next, I added the beans and the spices, and cooked for an additional 5-10 minutes. 

While all of this sauteing was going on, Katie started the pasta.  The recipe called for spaghetti, but I’m not terribly fond of spaghetti, so I used a whole-wheat reginelle pasta.

This stuff, it smells good.  And tastes good.  While I didn’t get the beans right–they should have been boiled a little longer–the dish was still yummy.  Katie and I ate a lot of it, but there were still a ton of leftovers.  Using the reginelle pasta worked well because, mixed with the leftovers, it made a sort of pasta salad which I ate for lunch the next few days.  Forewarning:  if you’ve got leftovers, don’t be surprised if you find the pasta’s turned black in spots–the eggplant skin stains the pasta.  It still tastes the same.

The first attempt in my grand cooking experiment was a success.  If you’d like to make this, I recommend using canned beans or soaking dried beans overnight.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt to first saute the peppers, onions, and garlic for a few minutes before adding the eggplant.  That way everything cooks thoroughly and nothing get soggy.

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