Bowtie pasta with Eggplant Sauce

I love eggplant! I don't like calling it eggplant though, it's sounds so much nicer in French (or British English)... aubergine... music to my ears! I love the texture and the taste. I can fit eggplant into practically any dish; I like it that much! A couple of years back, my picky husband who never tries anything, agreed to taste eggplant after lots of nagging and had a "Green Eggs and Ham" moment... "why... I DO like eggplant!" (surprise!).
I have converted 5 people so far... they all swore they hated eggplant, tasted it, and "gasp" they liked it. I think alot of people have never even tried eggplant and simply dislike the name or look of the vegetable. If that person is you: suck it up and try it!!!
My 2 all time favorite eggplant recipes are Eggplant Parmesan and Baingan Ka Bhurta (Indian mashed eggplant). Seeing as I just made some Chicken Parmesan last week, I decided it would be to similar to eat this week. As for making Indian eggplant for the little critics, that would be a no go, as my daughter likes to scream out "it's spicy! It's spicy!" to anything with the tiniest bite (even mild salsa... wuss! She gets that from me.. I'm not so tough!). Once she starts her chanting, then the other little critic decides he also can't eat it. That means we will wait a couple of years before re-introducing Indian food to the critics!

Enough rambling.... I had eggplant in the fridge, and wanted to eat it! This is what I concocted; kids ate it, it passed the test.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 garlic clove
300 gr eggplant, peeled and diced (3 cups)*
100 gr zucchini, peeled and diced (1/2 cup)
1 jar (400gr) of tomato-basil sauce
1 can chopped tomatoes (400 gr)
1 cup water
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tbsp fresh basil, or 1 tsp dried
1/4 tsp sweet hungarian paprika**
salt and pepper to taste
Pam cooking spray

Directions
- Heat oil in medium saucepan.
- Add onion and green pepper and cook for 5 minutes until softened.
- Add garlic, eggplant and mix, cover and cook stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. (Eggplant absorbs oil and liquids! If you find that the eggplant is starting to stick and burn, spary with Pam and mix... I needed to do this twice).
- Add zucchini and cook another 2 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients and cover and let simmer for another 10 minutes until eggplant is soft. (Eggplant is sometimes bitter if not fully cooked!) If sauce is too liquidy, remove cover and simmer until thickened, or if it is too thick add some water until desired consistency.

Serve over whole wheat pasta and top with fresh parmesan cheese.

* I peeled and diced because of the kids ;) Go ahead and chop the eggplant into larger pieces if you wish. As for the zucchini, I would have left the skin on if not for the kids (easier to hide them when they are skinned!). The peel is packed with nutrients! Also, I would prefer larger chunks of zucchini, and for them to be crunchier. If I was making this for zucchini loving people, I would have added the zucchini at the same time as the sauce and cut them in larger chunks so that they still would have a nice crunch... I probably would have doubled the amount as well ;)

** If you do not have sweet paprika, you can use regular paprika, it might just have more of a bite then the sweet paprika.

Nutritional Data
Sauce only (split into 4 servings)
3 WW points
159 cal
6 g fat
19 g carbs
6 g fiber
4 g protein

Sauce only (split into 5 servings)
2 WW points
128 cal
4.7 g fat
15 g carbs
5 g fiber
3 g protein