Cheesy Eggplant Pasta Sauce

This sauce gets its creaminess from a surprising place: fat-free cottage cheese blended smooth and stirred into braised eggplant and mushrooms. It melts into the hot vegetables and creates a rich, clingy sauce without the heaviness of cream or regular cheese.

Braising the eggplant and mushrooms in dry sherry instead of oil keeps the fat content low while building a winey, savory base. The mushrooms release plenty of their own liquid, so the vegetables practically cook in their own broth.

Nutritional yeast stirred in at the end adds a cheesy, almost Parmesan-like savoriness that ties everything together and boosts the “cheesy” factor without actual cheese.

Kitchen Tips

• Blend the cottage cheese in a mini food processor until completely smooth before adding. Lumpy cottage cheese in pasta sauce is not a good look or texture.
• Soak and rinse the eggplant cubes in water first to draw out bitterness. Five minutes is enough.
• Add the red bell pepper cubes late so they keep some crunch. Overcooked red pepper turns mushy and loses its sweetness.
• Serve over fresh linguine or any long pasta that catches the chunky sauce in its folds.

Variations

• Use ricotta instead of cottage cheese for a richer, more traditional Italian feel.
• Add a handful of fresh spinach in the last 2 minutes for color and extra vegetables.
• Swap sherry for white wine for a crisper, brighter sauce base.