This skinny eggplant parmesan pasta is a flavorful, light twist on an all-time favorite. Eggplants are roasted until tender and tossed with pasta smothered with flavourful sun-dried tomato pesto. This lovely pasta dish is light, vegetarian and gluten-free.
After a weekend of grilling, the week has to start off with a healthy vegetarian pasta! So are you a fan of Eggplant Parmesan pasta? Have you tried making it healthier, lighter or just more appealing to healthy people in your life?
I once had a request for a cooking class, it was a special Italian dinner where the group wanted to make pasta from scratch and many Italian classics from scratch— but it had to be light and healthy.
They were willing to cook/bake/chop/do anything required to make the event a success. So when the cooking school contacted me—this recipe for Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta came to mind as a must-have on the menu!
Why this recipe for Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta works:
I think my husband can qualify as the number one fan of this skinny eggplant Parmesan pasta —but then again he is a fan of anything eggplant.
I am a fan of this recipe for many reasons: It’s CRAZY DELICIOUS, and I love the light feel and fresh taste here compared to the heavy saucy version.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have my naughty days but I can only enjoy a tiny portion of it before I start feeling heavy. This recipe, however, is different. Trust me, I will lick my plate clean!
And while we’re still on this topic—have you checked my step by step skinny grilled chicken Parmesan recipe? It happens to be one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
So back to the light Italian cooking event, I ended up going with this skinny eggplant Parmesan pasta as part of the menu. Everyone was anxious to taste the difference, and mostly anxious to to see if this recipe will offer the same comfort they expect from a classic eggplant Parmesan.
After much anticipation on their end (and quite honestly some stress on my end—hoping to deliver), the skinny eggplant parmesan pasta was declared a WINNER!!
How to make Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta:
Now I’ll walk you through tiny tips and tricks why this recipe is indeed a winner! So it starts with roasting eggplant slices.
If you’re used to the melt in your mouth, utterly sweet taste of fried eggplants—you’ll have quite a bit of time adjusting to the taste and texture of roasted eggplant slices.
So to avoid this and get the same results as frying, we roast the eggplant slices while covered. This produces ultra soft melt in your mouth eggplant slices that also cook much faster!! So it’s a win win situation!
The sun dried tomato pesto is one of my favorite additions here. I am tweaking my recipe by actually doubling the amount of sun-dried tomatoes and adding tablespoons of canned crushed Roma tomatoes.
This produces an incredible boost of tomato flavor that’s much needed for this eggplant parmesan pasta recipe. Basically, after the eggplants are roasted , the pasta is cooked and pesto is zipped up in a food processor for 3 mins.
Everything is tossed together and served with a decent sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top (take this out if Vegan).
Now go ahead, indulge and spare 20 mins for a fabulous healthy pasta twist on Italian Eggplant Parmesan!
Tips for success:
- I used fettuccine for this recipe but linguine would work just as well.
- Make this vegan by skipping the parmesan.
- Add extra walnut pieces for crunch (optional).
Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta
This skinny eggplant parmesan pasta is a flavorful, light twist on an all-time favorite. The eggplant is roasted until tender, then tossed with pasta smothered with flavourful sun-dried tomato pesto. This lovely pasta dish is light, vegetarian and gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 4 large Japanese eggplants sliced into 1/4 inch slices totalling to 6 cups
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For the sun-dried tomato pesto
- 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons crushed canned tomatoes
- 1 lb fettuccine or your favorite pasta (gluten free if needed)
- Parmesan cheese for sprinkling (optional)
- chopped walnuts for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the eggplant slices in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and season them with salt, pepper, oregano and a drizzle of olive oil.
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Cover the baking sheet with foil entirely and place in the oven to cook for 15-20 mins (depending on the thickness of your eggplant slices).
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In the meantime, if your pesto is ready, place it in a food processor and add in the extra tomatoes. If not, then place all the sun-dried tomato pesto ingredients in a food processor with extra tomatoes and process until smooth.
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Cook the pasta according to package instructions and save some of the pasta water ( the water where the pasta was cooked—like in this sun-dried mins Greek tortellini).
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When the eggplant is ready, toss the pasta with the pesto and add in some pasta water 2 tablespoons at a time to lose up the pesto and form a sauce (as thick or thin as you like). Then toss in the eggplants. sprinkle some Parmesan and walnuts (optional) and serve.
Recipe Notes
- I used fettuccine for this recipe but linguine would work just as well.
- Make this vegan by skipping the parmesan.
- Add extra walnut pieces for crunch (optional).
The recipe says two tablespoons of tomatoes ….that cant be right…
Hi Anne, this is not a red sauce based eggplant parmesan, it’s rather a tomato pesto eggplant pasta. That’s why the crushed tomato amount is little. If you prefer a heavier tomato based sauce, you can absolutely do that by adding more tomatoes.
Giving this a try tonight! Looks amazing!
Oh Yaay hope you enjoy it!! 🙂 Thank you!
Haha Allie thanks! And you are missing OUT! 😉 You’ll have to try this!
Thanks Rebecca–you’ll enjoy it 🙂
Thanks Silvia, hope you make it soon:)
Matt–you’ll have to give it a try, they go perfectly well together!
Thanks Helen! 🙂 It’s a perfect pasta pair!
Thanks Kavey 🙂 I know what you mean, and I find that covering them during roasting creates the same melt in your mouth texture as fried eggplants–minus the grease! 🙂
Thanks Cheyanne–you’re the best! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!! 🙂
I could not wait to get here this morning to check out this recipe, Mahy. I’m seriously obsessed and I can’t wait until I have a moment to make this because I just know I’m going to be doing the happy dance. Such a perfect symphony of flavours! Sharing everywhere 🙂
OMG Robyn you made my day!!! Thanks so much 🙂 Hope you enjoy it, and I would love to see that dance! lol 🙂
Mahy!! This is such a delicious looking recipe!! I’ve never used sun dried tomato pesto but it sounds perfect. Definitely will have to make this.
Thanks so much Evi–you are missing out!! It’s one of my favorite pestos ever 🙂 Hope you make this soon 🙂