Easy Eggplant And Country Ham Ragù

Ready to spice up your daily dinner routine? Eggplant and country ham ragù is an amazing dish. Ham has a strong taste that many people enjoy, and mixing the ham with the eggplants is a great combination. Try out this great recipe and you may be adding this one to your books!

Flickr photo via Isabelle Boucher

Serving Information

This recipe will serve 4 people and will take about 10 minutes to prepare.
Total cook time for eggplant and country ham ragù is one hour.

What You Will Need To Make Eggplant and Country Ham Ragù

Extra Virgin olive oil
3 Small globe eggplants
12 slices of ham, sliced thin
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
1 can chipotle chilies
1 teaspoon cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 heaping tablespoon of tomato paste
½ cup of tomato sauce, store bought with garlic and olive oil
1 box of linguini or spaghetti
Parmesan Cheese
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Butter

How To Make Eggplant and Country Ham Ragù

1. Finely chop the onion and the garlic cloves.
2. Cut the globe eggplants into ½ inch pieces
3. In a large skillet over medium/high heat, add 4 tablespoons of oil.
4. Add roughly half of your eggplants to the pot.
5. Season them with salt and pepper, as desired, and stir them often. After about 7 minutes, they should be cooked. You will know because they are browned and tender.
6. Remove the eggplants from the pot.
7. Add the second half of the eggplants to the pot.
8. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Then, cook for 7 minutes and remove them from the pan when they are cooked.
9. Now, in the same pan you just used to cook the eggplants, add more olive oil and add the chopped onions, garlic, and ham.
10. Cook for approximately 6 minutes.
11. Then, add in the chilies to the pan.
12. Next, add the cocoa powder to the pan.
13. Finally, add the tomato paste to the pan.
14. Use a wooden spoon to stir so that these flavors coat the ham.
15. Cook for about 3 ½ minutes, stirring constantly.
16. Add the tomato sauce to the skillet now.
17. Then add the eggplant and a cup of water to the pan.
18. Reduce heat to medium/low and let simmer for 30 minutes.
19. In another pot, cook the pasta according to the cooking instructions on the back of the box.
20. When cooked, strain and keep two cups of the water from the pan.
21. Add pasta to the pot with the sauce, with a tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of the remaining water from the pasta.
22. Continue to stir so that nothing is getting stuck or burned at the bottom of the pan.
23. Equally distribute between 4 bowls.
24. Add parmesan cheese to your liking and garnish with the freshly chopped parsley.
25. Serve and enjoy.

Some people do not like the flavor of the chilies in this recipe, especially children. In that case, just simply do not add any of the chilies to the pan and exclude them from the recipe.

Will you make this delicious eggplant and country ham ragù?