Pasta Salad With Roasted Eggplant, Chile and Mint Recipe (2024)

1) Watch video...helpful to see cook color for eggplant...took mine 40 min to get there not 25. 2) Says serves 2, I think 3 as main, even 4 as side. 3) Made twice; first per recipe, second minus anchovies given one guest can't eat them. Add a little more salt to compensate. Delicious both ways. 4) Prefer to chiffonade rather than tear herbs. 5) If skin on eggplant is a bit tough out of oven, no worries; softens to 'just right' when tossed in tomatoes. 6) Great room temp.

Super tasty and easy to throw together. Threw in some roasted pine nuts at the very end just before serving and they added a nice crunch. I can imagine toasted walnuts giving it the same crunch edge.

A change from the usual summer tomato and eggplant dish by using raw tomatoes and an interesting mix of herbs and lemon. I used purchased semi-pitted Nicoise olives instead of capers and a bit of white miso instead of anchovies.

Our daughter-in-law made this for us (using high-protein pasta) when we were visiting, and it is fabulous. I am going to try adding some toasted walnuts and feta cheese to make it a meal.

Olives worked well as a substitute for anchovy.

wonderful dish! veganized it by substituting the anchovies with salted capers. We dont have an oven so we salted and drained the eggplant and then baked it in a pan, this also saves some time The texture of the aubergine combined with the spices made it an exciting dish with a deep flavor. This is a keeper!!

You won't risk burning the garlic if it is left whole.

Love this dish. Made this three times mostly as directed, with exception of anchovy paste and only mint and chives in my herb garden at the moment. So easy and fresh tasting. One of my favorites! There is a video of Melissa as well cooking this recipe out there somewhere. I think it's on the NYT website in food section.

I made this using "baby" eggplant and a variety-pack of "heirloom" grape and cherry tomatoes from the warehouse club, and although I don't doubt that it will be better when I can use produce fresh from my garden (what isn't?), it was still delicious using the versions that are available year-round. I wasn't sure I'd like the mint, but it really made the dish. I plan to try it as a panzanella when I have big juicy summer tomatoes.

Made this several times. Works well warm with spaghettini and Parmesan. All ingredients quantities are adjustable depending on your taste. Good with a good balsamic drizzle instead of the lemon. Also had good fresh oregano growing so threw that in as well. Had no chives and used chopped scallions. If you are serving as a pasta salad make pasta very al dente as it absorbs more moisture and continues to soften as it sits.

I took Terry J's advice and added some pine nuts. Very tasty.

I like to throw the eggplant on the grill along with some peppers for this dish when it's hot out, so I can keep my kitchen a bit cooler. Adds a nice smokey flavor. Wonderful recipe!

I made this for a picnic on the beach, and it was so satisfying. Added toasted pine nuts just before serving, and I agree with other reviewers that this added a nice textural change. I also added jarred, marinated artichoke hearts and cubed marinated feta because I had it on hand. It was great at room temperature or even cold out of the fridge the following day!

Delicious harvest salad. I followed the recipe exactly. I served it with some good ripe Vermont chedder cheese and local chewey french bread. Everyone loved it.

This was great! Very little effort. To cut down on oil, I tossed eggplant chunks with salt, spread on the baking sheet, and sprayed with aerosolized evoo, then gave another light spray after each toss during roasting. I find that eggplant can be an oil sponge otherwise.
As fa*gel suggested, I added walnuts and was glad I did. Next time, I'll roast a head of garlic along with the eggplant and try adding that into the mix.
This quantity served 3 adults as a main easily.

This a terrific lunch recipe. We’re not anchovy fans but there’s already sufficient salt. I added a tub of Trader Joe’s Mediterranean feta cheese for protein. The dish kept well for leftovers. Although our kids are long grown, I imagine this would work well in a school lunchbox.

I made this over the weekend and the Chile flakes burned! So when I redid the oil, I added the Chile later and lowered the heat. The recipe is a great canvas to extrapolate - great with chicken or feta!

Yum! Doubled, otherwise made as written. That made plenty for 4 leftovers. Great made ahead and brought to the park for Chill on the Hill. Next time consider adding beans (cannellini?) and mozzarella balls. And love the idea to add walnuts!

This is the winner. I didn’t have all the fresh herbs and used some already made pesto. I love the addition of capers here the lemon is great. Agreed with everybody else that a nice fresh white cheese, nuts and probably a lot of other things could be added.

Can this be made ahead successfully or should it be served the day it's cooked?

Just what I was looking for. Made it almost exactly as the recipe is written but did have to roast my eggplant about 35 minutes. Also, kinda wish there were more anchovies. I’ll try that next time and reduce salt. Love this pasta salad and will make it many more times.

What do you do w anchovy??? It disintegrated and came out more like a paste, put it all in and the taste is a bit strong. Directions a bit vague…

I made this pretty much as written (more tomato and garlic) and it's pretty good. Next time I'd up the red pepper flakes and decrease the amount of pasta to highlight veggies.

Absolutely delicious as written, just added toasted pine nuts at the end. The tender japanese eggplants worked really well.

Be sure to season well. I was a bit stingy with the herbs the first time I made this and it was a bit bland. Use plenty. Per Terry J's suggestion, I will definitely add nuts next time -- both for flavor and texture.

All I can say is, WoW! This is an easy spectacular summer salad. I didn’t have chives or lemon, but used lime instead. Thank you, Melissa Clark for another amazing dish!

We streamlined this recipe a bit, and it was still delicious! We omitted the anchovies and mint, but doubled the basil. The garlic-chile oil was very tasty, but I think it would have been better, given the small amount of olive oil, to prepare it in a small skillet. Definitely use the lemon and extra olive oil when serving. This will be a permanent entry in our summer salad rotation.

Excellent salad. I love pasta salads but they can become monotonous with the standard vinegar and oil dressing. The tomatoes, capers, anchovies, basil and mint give this a lot of dimension and interesting flavor. I didn’t have a fresh tomato so I had to use a can of drained, diced tomatoes. It came out fine though I am sure a fresh tomato would be superior in flavor and texture.

This was fantastic! I used cooked farro for the based instead of pasta because that's what I had. Soooooo good and perfect for midsummer.

Fabulous! I followed video directions and used Indian eggplants. Doubled the basil and mint because I had herbs from my garden. This is a great summer salad! Thank you!