Baked Ziti with Egglplant and Spinach

This recipe was very yummy, from Leslie Sarana's blog, the dainty vegetarian. I doubled the recipe. Enjoy!

This recipe serves 4 (you can easily double and bake in a 9x12 dish - as I did above)
1/2 lb. of ziti
1/2 eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
tomato sauce, yours or my recipe
1 cup ricotta cheese
a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
a few leaves of fresh basil, roughly sliced
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
a handful of grated parmesan cheese
a sprinkle of dried oregano

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Make your tomato sauce. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box until very al dente (chewy) The noodle will cook more in the oven and you don't want them to get too limp. When the noodles are done, toss them in some tomato sauce to coat. (this will prevent sticking) Lightly saute the eggplant cubes in some olive oil with a pinch of salt till they just begin to turn golden.


Now for assembly. Spread some tomato sauce at the bottom of the baking dish. (so the pasta doesn't stick)
Then put a couple spoonfuls of pasta down, the eggplant, the roughly chopped spinach, some chopped basil and the ricotta cheese. (for an extra surprise, sprinkle in some toasted pine nuts) Season with salt and pepper. Add another layer of ziti, then a little more sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and sprinkle with dried oregano. ( I like to add an Italian seasoning blend that has oregano, thyme, basil, red pepper, etc). Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cheese starts to bubble and turn golden.
For more detailed step by step instructions (and some really pretty food photography) see Leslie's blog.