Baked eggplant stuffed with pasta, oven-baked eggplant boats filled with a gooey and indulgent baked pasta filling — a vegetarian recipe without meat or cured meats, simply delicious!

If you’ve already tried my recipe for baked eggplant boats stuffed with rice, now you should try the eggplant boats stuffed with Sicilian-style pasta, a rich and delightful first course perfect for summer that brings all the taste and aroma of Sicily. To make the stuffed eggplants you can use any variety you prefer — I chose the classic dark eggplant, but you can also use violet or white varieties. With only a few other ingredients you’ll bring to the table a first course that amazes, truly exceptional!

Let’s head to the kitchen now and discover together how to make homemade oven-baked eggplant boats stuffed with pasta. Before rushing to the stove, I suggest taking a look at my collection of First courses with eggplant and Tasty eggplant recipes. If you want to stay updated on all my other kitchen ideas, you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).

Ingredients for making eggplant boats stuffed with pasta

1 eggplant (medium-large)
1 onion (medium, white or red)
to taste extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1.5 tbsp tomato paste
to taste water
5 oz provola (or scamorza cheese)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3.5 oz pasta (short pasta, I chose farfalle (about 1 cup dry))

Tools

Oven
Bowl
Baking dish

How to make eggplant boats with pasta

Rinse the eggplant and cut it in half, leaving the stem attached. Using a knife, score the flesh and then scoop it out with a spoon, creating two boats. Cut the scooped flesh into small pieces and set aside. Place the boats on a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake in a convection oven at 392°F for about 15 minutes, or until slightly golden.
Dice the eggplant flesh and chop an onion. Sauté the onion in a large skillet with a generous drizzle of oil, add the diced eggplant, season with salt and let everything brown and develop flavor.
Add the cherry tomatoes halved, the tomato passata, 1 cup of water and cook over medium heat until you get a creamy sauce — this will take about 10-15 minutes. Adjust salt and add a little basil off the heat. Set aside a little of this sauce.
Cook the pasta in lightly salted water, drain it very al dente and combine it with the sauce, adding a little of the cooking water. Mix in most of the provola and the grated cheese and combine well.
Remove the eggplant boats from the oven, spread a little of the reserved sauce inside each and then fill them with the well-dressed pasta. Garnish with the remaining pieces of cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes at 392°F. Remove from the oven and serve after a few minutes of resting.
The eggplants are ready — they are fantastic served immediately and keep well in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours.