Eggplant Sauce Recipe

Tomato and eggplant sauce recipe with olives, capers, eggplant, and red wine 

This is a great sauce that you can even use for blending with pasta or rice. 

There may be plenty of basic recipes for making tomato sauce, but you can always discover or create a new one by using whatever ingredients you already have available, and whipping up a new recipe from scratch. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with new ingredients or combinations. 

Our following recipe is based on the classic Mediterranean summer garden. 

Eggplant Sauce Recipe: Ingredients List

So the ingredients that we will need are the following:

• one pound of eggplant (the smaller the better)
• a little bit of salt 
• two medium sized ripe tomatoes
• two tablespoons of tomato paste 
• one sweet red pepper
• three tablespoons extra virgin olive oik
• three cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• eight to ten pitted kalamata olives, finely sliced (these are usually available ready at the supermarket)
• two tablespoons of capers, washed and strained 
• two tablespoons finely choped fresh basil
• fresh ground black pepper (as needed or desired) 
• one glass of dry red wine (in our case we recommend the wonderful Sangiovese) 

Eggplant Sauce Recipe: Cooking Steps

This is a recipe that is based on the amount necessary for one to one and a half boxes of spaghetti pasta. If using pasta, we recommend penne rigatte because it retains more of the texture and flavor of the sauce. 

We start our recipe by cutting the two edges of the eggplants, and we cut them in cubes of approximately one inch each. We put all the eggplant cubes in a big strainer, we sprinkle with salt, and we leave them with the salt for about forty minutes. This is done so the eggplants soak up its juices. 

Meanwhile we peel the tomatoes and we cut them in small cubes, removing most of the seeds. We do the same with the sweet red pepper as well. 

Returning now to our eggplants, we wash them will with cool running water, and after that we dry them with a clean kitchen towel. 

In a deep frying pan, or a medium sized pot, we add the extra virgin olive oil, and in a high flame, we saute the eggplant, the garlic, and the pepper for about eight to ten minutes, until the eggplant softens to an ‘al dente’ texture, without falling apart completely. 

We add the tomato chunks, salt, and if we believe its necessary this is the time to add a good quality tomato paste (two tablespoons). And while over the flame, we add the glass of our red wine (Sangiovese). 

We let the sauce slowly boil for approximately ten minutes, or otherwise till the sauce thickens. 

When we turn off the flame, we then add the kalamata olive slices, the capers, and the basil. 

Serving tips for our Eggplant Sauce:

Our sauce can even be used for three to four days after being made, or we can even make it and freeze it and keep it even for two or three months. But if we’re making our sauce for storing (fridge or freezer) we must not add the olives, caper, basil, until its to be served. All these ingredients must be added after the sauce has been reheated and right before being served. 

Of course now we’ll have to make the pasta or rice separately, but the flavor and taste of the dish will be much better if all the ingredients are reheated altogether to bind the flavors as one. 

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