Summer Veggies with a Creamy Pesto Sauce over Pasta

Here is a quick summer recipe for meatless Monday!  Summer is such a great time of year for cooking!  So many different veggies are coming into season.   This week I had eggplant, summer squash and some tomatoes (I bought these from an Amish farm stand).  Ratatouille immediately came to mind but I didn’t have bell peppers so this is very similar.

 

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant, peeled and diced

1 medium onion

1 medium summer squash (or zucchini), sliced into half moons or diced

2 medium tomatoes, cored and diced

2 cloves garlic

Basil

Pesto (homemade or store bought)

4 TBS cream cheese

1 TBS Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Pasta of your choice, cooked according to package.

 

This is meant to be a quick and easy meal.  Nothing fancy.  Just yummy and healthy. 

 

First, peel and dice the eggplant.  Put in a colander and generously salt and leave over plate or in the sink.  This is important, especially if you have a big eggplant since it will draw the bitter liquid out.  Let this sit while you get the pasta water ready.

Cut up all the other vegetables.  Heat a large sauce pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Add the onions and cook until they get just a little brown.  Add the garlic and squash and cook a few minutes.  By this time you should be adding your pasta to the water.  Rinse the eggplant to get the salt off and then add it to the pan with the squash and onions.  Keep stirring since I find eggplant has a tendency to stick. 

 

After about 5 minutes add the diced tomatoes and let simmer.  When the pasta is done, drain and add it back to the pot and add 2 tablespoons of pesto.  I used some of my homemade Kale pesto.  I made a big batch a few weeks ago and froze some! 

 

I also threw in 2 tablespoons of pesto in the vegetables.  You could add the basil and call it a day but I wanted something a little more special.  I wanted something a little creamy.  I decided to add 4 tablespoons of cream cheese.  You could do a little more or a little less, depending upon how creamy you want it.  4 tablespoons thickened the sauce up nicely, I thought!

 

Mix everything well and let the cream cheese melt.  Serve over pasta.  I chose Campenelle.  I love this shape since it is perfect for chunky sauces.    Both boys enjoyed it, or parts of it.  My oldest son didn’t care for the eggplant this way (he prefers eggplant parmigiana) and ate 2 servings of pasta and my youngest son ate mostly eggplant.  Go figure.

 

We had some left overs since this makes about 6 servings. This will make a nice lunch tomorrow.  It is reasonable for any diet since there are less than 300 calories according to the recipe I built in myfitnesspal and it is full of veggies.  You could even get a way with serving half of the pasta and adding more of the veggies and you wouldn’t miss a thing! 

 

Meatless Mondays are always fun.  What do you make on Meatless Mondays?