![Cheesy Green Chile Bean Bake](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/01/17/multimedia/as-bean-bake-kcqv/as-bean-bake-kcqv-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Eggplant and Zucchini Pasta With Feta and Dill
![Eggplant and Zucchini Pasta With Feta and Dill](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/07/12/dining/kc-eggplant-zucchini-pasta/kc-eggplant-zucchini-pasta-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 6tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1pound eggplant (about 2 small eggplants), cut into 1-inch cubes (about 7 cups)
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 1pound green zucchini or yellow squash, halved lengthwise and sliced into ¼-inch-thick half-moons (about 5 cups)
- 1pound mezze rigatoni or any short pasta
- 8ounces crumbled feta (about 1½ cups)
- ¼cup chopped fresh dill
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
- Step 2
Add 2 tablespoons oil and zucchini to skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes.
- Step 3
While the vegetables cook, boil the pasta in a pot of salted water until al dente. Reserve 1½ cups cooking water and drain pasta. Return pasta and reserved cooking water to pot over medium heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 1 cup of cheese and cook, stirring, until the cheese melts and forms a sauce, about 2 minutes. Stir in zucchini, eggplant and dill; season with salt and pepper.
- Step 4
Serve pasta in bowls and top with remaining cheese.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Should the eggplant be peeled before frying or roasting?
Sounds like a tasty recipe but I HATE frying so I plan to roast the veggies with minimal oil! 425 for about 20 - 30 minutes ought to be perfect.
Heresy to some no doubt, but I will be making this sans the pasta, will serve it with excellent bread and a salad on the side. Think about it, is the addition of pasta really necessary? On its own it sounds delicious and filling.
This seems more sauteed than fried (the word fry seems to have 4 letters for many folks). Agree it needs garlic (doesn't everything?). Also feel it benefits by a little onion and sweet pepper and mushrooms. Mike: having cooked eggplant w/ and w/o skin, I think this type of dish is better w/ peeled eggplant. Salt it, let it rest an hour or so, rinse and squeeze it or pat it w/ paper towel and it's less likely to be bitter and will not drink up as much oil.
ANY vegetable sauteed in olive oil and tossed with pasta and plenty of your choice of cheese is delicious. My go-to is 2 pounds of zucchini, 1 pound of pasta, 1 cup of grated parmesan. My wife likes to roast a cauliflower (in florets) with whole garlic cloves and black olives plus olive oil (a Libyan dish, we think) before tossing with pasta. We like eggplant skin and all, but if it's even a little bit old, then salt it and let it sit for a few minutes to draw out the bitterness.
I like the sound of this unusual mix of vegetables- but whilst I’ll not be able to resist a little garlic, as well I’ll be either adding some heat along the way (dried /fresh chilli..either! ..selection unimportant) or some very lightly crushed pink peppercorns... & will indeed be heavy-handed with the marvellous dill! What’s not to like with this one? Thanks Kay Chun!
I've been making variations on this dish since 1980, but with rosemary rather than dill. Completely different flavor profile: eggplant is OK with just about any herb but EXALTED with rosemary.
Rather than salting and draining, I microwave then blot slices or cubes of eggplant for 2-3 minutes. Miraculously, the eggplant doesn't absorb excessive oil after doing this!
Super yum. Threw in a handful of pitted kalamata olives for an extra salty bite. Don't skip the dill, it's crucial. Husband appreciated a lemon wedge for some added brightness.
Easy and quite tasty. Roasted cubed zucchini and eggplant. Used French sheep and goat milk feta which melted easily. Used paparadelle but short tube pasta would be good too. Cut recipe by half.
Using ideas from other readers, cut zucchini and eggplant into small pieces and roasted them in oven for 15 to 20 minutes on separate trays. Combined them after cooking. Added crushed red pepper, 1 Tb lemon juice and salt and pepper. Let sit to give flavors a chance to meld. Cooked 12 ounces of pasta al dente, removed 1-1/2 pasta water. Put pasta to colander. Added cut up feta, half the pasta water to empty pot, and stirred until it formed a sauce. Added pasta and vegetables. Excellent!!
This was delicious! So glad there are leftovers - LOTS of leftovers. Next time I make this I'll use ½ pound of pasta as I like more veggies than noodles. That would be the only thing I'd change. Use your biggest skillet so vegetables brown a little rather than get soft and mushy as they cook. This gives the dish a nice texture and it looks beautiful in the pasta bowl before plating. As written this recipe would definitely serve six dinner size portions - for big appetites.
Fiona recommend pecorino, I agree.
In the photo neither the eggplant nor zucchini look peeled.
This was good but didn't make it on my A list. The feta sauce wasn't as flavorful or complex as I'd hoped. In fact the whole dish seemed to lack something. It felt like a few more ingredients were needed. Also I didn't like the dill in it (personal preference) - if I make this again I may throw in a few more ingredients and a different herb, or more than one herb, for seasoning.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. In our house we hold "Revenge Smells" between the kid living in the downstairs apartment and the parents upstairs. This dish provides filling comfort and delicious veggies with the satisfaction of pasta and feta. Totally agree with the suggestions for touch of garlic which we added with the squash. Farm fresh veggies made all the difference and the best thing of all was the yell up the stairs "you win, I'm coming up for dinner" from our favorite 20Something. :)
This was delicious, a new weeknight staple! Followed the recipe as-is, except I roasted the vegetables in the oven instead of frying, and added a squeeze of lemon juice and some zest at the end as I felt it needed some freshness.
Like this one. Like others, I roasted the veggies and added garlic. I like the use of feta here. I used a pinch of spicy pepper and use basil which is what I have in abundance.
Added garlic thanks to the tips in the comments!! Defo recommend for a quick and easy dinner.
We really enjoyed this recipe-even my 3 year old ate it! We used lemon flavored pasta and added sautéed red onion and garlic! A very hearty and delicious meal, a new summer favorite!
Disappointing. Not bad but not really worth it. Mixed the leftovers with cottage cheese which kind of helped.
I was skeptical of the dill in the dish, but it complimented the feta and veggies nicely. Also, instead of cutting back on the pasta, I upped the veggies by 50%. Good call.
My husband and I both did not care for this dish. However I added chopped fresh tomatoes when I reheated this in the microwave and it was great.
I took a cooking class in Italy and they grill eggplant with NO oil on a very hot cast iron grill pan. It doesn’t stick if the pan is hot. Easy!
Amazing
All things I love—pasta, feta, eggplant, zucchini and fresh dill. Nope. This was tasteless and boring. We tried adding some garlic, then some onion, then some pepper flakes and olives. Still not great, but at least it was then palatable.
5 stars for versatility - I am looking forward to trying out suggestions from other commenters. Like others, I roasted my veggies in the oven using maybe 2T of oil to save on calories. I had a half of a medium eggplant, 1 medium yellow squash and added 10oz. grape tomatoes. Cooked 8 oz. of chickpea rotini. I did add a dollop of ricotta but only because it just looked like there was not going to be enough sauce, but feta is the correct cheese here. Will use more feta next time.
I know that pasta water refers to water left from cooking regular wheat pasta, because starches in the water impart silky qualities to sauces made using it, but I simply added water from my gluten free chickpea pasta and the sauce turned out fine. We felt that fresh dill went really well with the flavors of the sauce. Overall, a great dish that can be adapted in many different ways. We do eat meat but didn't miss the meat in the dish at all; it was very satisfying as it was. Thank you!
Excellent! This is very easy and quite adaptable. Like some, I added mushrooms and a bit of garlic. The quality of the sauce you get will be dependent on how much character the feta has that you use. I used a goats milk feta with wonderful results. Also, sautéing the eggplant works quite well, just have faith that as you slowly cook it in the olive oil it will soften and brown without becoming saturated with oil. Great recipe.
Double the amount of veggies. They break down....you can never have enough!
Advertisement