Fussili with Eggplant

This is a super easy pasta I learnt from an Italian Chef, of cos I would like to share it with those who are too busy to prepare a healthy meal at home...

Its a 15 min 3 steps meal:
1. Cook
2. Combine
3. Enjoy

And all you need to have is an eggplant, cheese, pasta and sauce from Barilla.. of cos you can try other brand as well... but I love the texture of the pasta of this brand...

Serves 4

Ingredients
400g Fusilli
1 jar of Barilla Basilico Sauce (its a tomato sauce with basil leaves)
1 eggplant
100g mozzarella cheese, diced 1 cm
10 fresh basil leaves
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Directions
1. Wash eggplant and diced into 1cm. Soak them in salt water for a while and you will see the brown liquid surfacing. Rinse the eggplant to remove the salt and dry the eggplant with paper towels.

2. Bring a big pot of water to boil, once boiled add salt and drop the Fusilli into the water and stir. Cook according to the time shown on the pack.
Note: Do not add any olive oil in the boiling water and do not rinse the pasta with cold water.

3. Meanwhile add olive oil in a frying pan, once hot add the eggplant and cook until soft and golden in colour. Add around 8 basil leaves (torn by hands, do not use knife to cut). Add Basilico sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat.

4. Drain the pasta and save a small bowl of the pasta water for later use. Turn on the heat of the pasta sauce, add the pasta water (depend on how watery you want your pasta sauce to be) and toss the pasta with the sauce for 1 min. Add mozzarella cheese and remove from heat once it start to melt (do not let the cheese melt totally).

5. Serve with the leftover basil leaves and grated parmesan cheese. Season with cracked black pepper.

Note: Salting eggplant accomplishes two goals: it pulls out juices that carry bitter flavors, and it collapses the air pockets in the eggplant's sponge-like flesh, thus preveniting it from absorbing too much oil and getting greasy.Thorough drying is important; squeezing out excess moisture will give you a less greasy result.

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