Eggplant pasta

I finally used up that lovely big eggplant I got in my CSA bag last week!  Tonight I made eggplant with bowtie pasta.  First I cut the eggplant into small cubes, put them in a colander, sprinkled a bunch of salt, and let it sit for 30-40 minutes.  This gets all the bitter juices out.  Most recipes I've seen recommend peeling the eggplant, but I'm not big on peeling vegetables if the skin is edible so I left it on.  Then I rinsed all the salt off and dried the eggplant with paper towels, then sauteed it in olive oil for 15-20 minutes until all the cubes were nice and brown.  Then I added 1 1/2 diced tomatoes, several cloves of minced garlic, and a sprinkling of sea salt.  I also added just a splash of water and some more olive oil to make it a little more saucy.  I simmered this mixture for 10-15 minutes, and cooked half a package of bowtie pasta.  Then I added several chopped basil leaves and stirred that around for a minute or so, and it was done!  I served the eggplant sauce on top of the bowtie pasta, with fresh cracked black pepper and grated Romano cheese.

It was pretty good!  I served it (to myself) with a salad and it was plenty of food.  Pretty easy too!