All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018

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A long, long time ago, I had a boyfriend. And that boyfriend had – egads! – ex-girlfriends. One of these ex-girlfriends was (and remains) a famous actress. A beautiful, famous actress. She had been reaching out to him to “reconnect.” My boyfriend at the time announced that he would be having dinner with this ex at some point in the future. I informed him that I would be attending this dinner myself. He looked at me like I was crazy. “Nothing’s going on,” he explained. “She just wants to get together. We are friends.” I explained that, as his live-in girlfriend, his friends should be my friends, too, and asked that if everything was so innocent, why couldn’t he just invite her over to our home for dinner.

It took a bit but I won this debate. The invitation was extended & then the pressure was on. ME. On me because I had to cook the damned dinner – a dinner to impress this chick. I wanted to impress her with both my culinary skills & with the level of our domesticity. It was a passive-aggressive counter-attack to what I sensed were not entirely innocent intentions on her part.

This was pre-internet and pre-40 million cooking shows – so I had only my trusty collection of cookbooks to consult for ideas. After hours of deliberating – I ended up making two dishes I had never made before – always very dangerous if making a good impression is your top priority. I made a two-color soup much like this one (this one here is not my creation):

Photo borrowed from HERE.

And I made an eggplant timbale as shown here in this blog. As fate would have it, my dinner was a huge success & the ex-girlfriend was smart & funny & charming & the two of us were quickly gabbing like old friends, nearly cutting my boyfriend from the conversation completely.

And – for the record, ladies (and gents) – this ex-girlfriend never “reached out” to “touch base” again – to either me or my boyfriend. So – my instincts had been correct. She had been perhaps interested in rekindling more than just old times. But – to her credit – once she met me, she was forever respectful and was never again a threat to our domestic bliss.

So – if you ever need to impress someone or scare off some interested interloper from meddling with your love life – serve them this whopper of a dish. It is far easier to make than folks guess and it tastes delicious – and it is classier than a slap fight & hair pulling.

Also – as an aside, I bought this fucking gigantic can (I know canned tomatoes are bad but sometimes you gotta bend rules) of tomato sauce for $2.69. That is practically free! It makes 12 cups of whatever the Hell sauce you are making. I made arrabbiata (surprise, surprise) and I froze 8 cups of it & used 4 cups of it to make the vodka sauce in this recipe.

Vodka Sauce – large quantity

INGREDIENTS

2 28-ounce cans tomato sauce

1 small onion – diced

1/2 cup vodka (optional)

1/4 cup olive oil

5 garlic cloves – chopped

1 TBS crushed red pepper (optional)

1 cup chopped basil

1 cup peas – optional

S&P to taste

For a pink sauce (optional) – 1 cup vegan heavy cream or vegan cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil & saute the onion until soft. Add garlic for one minute then add the vodka. Cook on high a minute & then add the other ingredients, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low & simmer for 30 minutes or more. For a pink sauce – add 1 cup vegan heavy cream or vegan cream cheese.

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Vegan Eggplant Timbale with Rigatoni & Vodka Sauce

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE TIMBALE:

1 pound rigatoni (or other pasta) – cooked & drained

8 oz vegan mozzarella

4 large eggplants

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/8 cup vegan Parmesan

Chopped tomato or chopped fresh parsley or basil – as garnish

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Slice the eggplants into 1/4 inch slices. You can go the long way or the other way – creating round disks. (OPTIONAL – Place in colanders or on paper towels & sprinkle with salt on both sides. Let the eggplants drain for about 30 minutes. This not only helps remove moisture from the eggplant but also minimizes bitterness. I skipped this step.)

You can either rub olive oil into your eggplant before grilling or you can dip them in an Italian salad dressing – really just to lubricate them so they do not stick to the grilling surface & tear apart. Grill (a grill pan works, too) the eggplant until they get nice grill marks on one side, turn them & repeat. Remove & set aside.

Cook the rigatoni according to the box directions. Err on the side of under-cooking – as they will cook more in the oven. Drain the rigatoni & mix in a bowl with cheeses & 2 or more cups of vodka sauce. Add more sauce if you like a really wet pasta. You will have extra vodka sauce that you can use to add as a garnish to the finished slices of timbale or to use in another recipe. It might be nice to have extra sauce for the timbale when you are in the leftovers phase.

ASSEMBLY-

Grease a spring form pan & then put some bread crumbs & vegan Parmesan inside. Swirl the pan to coat all the surfaces. Throw any unstuck bread crumbs/cheese away.

Line the inside of the pan with grilled eggplant. You can either do as I did or, if you have circular disks, fan them on the bottom of the pan & then stick some, overlapping, up on the sides. However you do it – try to cover every part of the pan with eggplant. Pour the pasta & vodka sauce & cheese mix in – layering in extra cheese, if you fancy. Top with any remaining eggplant slices.

Cover the timbale in foil & place some heavy dishes on top & put in the fridge to compress for about 15 minutes.

Then – bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Let rest, unmolested, for at least 15 minutes and then put a serving dish on top of the timbale, flip the whole thing over & then very carefully – remove the spring form pan.

Garnish with either grated Parmesan or extra vodka sauce.