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“Very well, I will marry you if you promise not to make me eat eggplant.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez,  Love in the Time of Cholera, 

Unlike Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I love eggplant.  This baked rigatoni dish is a satisfying vegetarian main dish chockful of eggplant with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses giving it ooey-gooey richness.  The addition of pesto gives it a nice flavor boost. I modified the original recipe by roasting the eggplant instead of pan frying it in oil, increased the amount of pesto and added some herbs and spices.   On a busy weeknight, you can assemble it in advance and bake it when ready.  For a shortcut, you can substitute ready-made tomato sauce and omit the onion/garlic/tomatoes.  You can view the original recipe by one of my favorite bloggers, Josette @The Brook Cook, here.