Eggplant-Pepper Pasta Sauce

This past week at the public market, I bought some cute little eggplants (they're only 3 or 4 inches long).  We found this one to be a bit humorous...

Photo courtesy of Jeremy. :) 

 I wanted to use a bunch of veggies tonight as I knew some of my bell peppers and my tomatoes were not going to last too much longer.  So I decided to make a pasta sauce out of them.  I roasted all of the veggies together in the oven and then blended them until they were smooth.  Delicious! And vegan!  We're true omnivores, but we appreciate a meal filled with vegetables. :)

This sauce was really simple to make and tasted amazing.  It was spicy thanks to the habanero and cherry pepper I put in it -- I mean, really spicy.  Cut back or use jalapenos or some other pepper if you don't like spicy food.

I cooked up some whole wheat rotini and added half the sauce.  I have the other half in the freezer, ready for another meal some time in the future. :)

This pasta ended up looking a lot like mac and cheese.  This was probably in part because of the very light color of the eggplant I had.  I love shopping at the public market.  I find so many varieties of veggies that I've never had before.  A great way to experiment with new veggies.  Farm fresh eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic - Yum!

Recipe:
6 small eggplants, chopped (about 2 1/2 c. chopped eggplant)
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 red onion, quartered
7 roma tomatoes, chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 habanero pepper (optional)*
1 cherry bomb pepper (optional)*
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tbs. olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place veggies on a baking sheet and sprinkle on the salt and pepper.  Drizzle on the olive oil and mix to combine.  Roast for thirty minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until softened and slightly browned.
2. Place veggies in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth (or as smooth as you want it).  Mix with cooked pasta and enjoy!

(Cook whatever pasta you'd like once the veggies have been in the oven for about 25 minutes.  I didn't start the pasta until after the veggies came out of the oven because I wasn't in a hurry.

* Note: these peppers added a nice spicy flavor (and it was spicy... even we were drinking a lot of water...).  You can certainly leave them out, add less, or change up what peppers you use.  Since Jeremy and I bought a selection of hot peppers at the public market, I've been using a couple of whatever I have on hand.