Angel Hair with Tomato Eggplant Sauce

I have a love/hate relationship with my crockpot. When I bought it a couple of years ago, I had grand ideas for delicious, convenient meals. Through much trial and error, I have settled on the fact that it does several dishes very well, but many others just come out...mushy, with the flavors of all the ingredients indistinguishable from one another. Blech.

However, dishes that always turn out well are most kinds of soups, lentil dishes, and sauces. Tonight's dinner was so easy, because I just got the sauce going in the crock earlier in the day, and then I just had to cook the angel hair and it was done. Love that! Berkeley loves any kind of noodles, but doesn't have much experience with eggplant, so I was curious how he would like it. He loved it; ate two full bowls.

Those are toasted pine nuts on top. Mmm. I adapted this recipe from an online crockpot recipe group (I think it was this one).

Angel Hair with Tomato Eggplant Sauce

2 garlic cloves - crushed
1 medium onion, diced
2 T olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and diced into 1” cubes
2 cans (28oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup water
1/2 t dried oregano

1/2 c pitted black olives, sliced
2 T minced fresh parsley
4 c hot cooked angel hair
2 T toasted pine nuts (optional)

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.

In a 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 quart crockpot, combine eggplant, onions, garlic, undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, water and oregano. Cook on low 7 - 8 hours (high 3 1/2 - 4 hours). Stir in olives and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over pasta. Garnish with toasted pine nuts.
Serves: 6