I'm not sure there are even words for how good this is!

My fantastic cook of a bf had this pasta dish that was just so good, but I could only eat it on a planned cheat day. Desperate to find a substitute for the pasta so I could have it all the time, I finally figured it out last night. It opened to rave reviews... I thought my fellow diners were going to lick the pot clean!

It went something like this:

Chop up about 6 slices of uncooked bacon into very small pieces. Drop them into the bottom of a very large pot (think soup kettle). Cook them in the bottom of the pot until the fat has been rendered out and the bacon pieces are crispy. Add in 1lb of *ground* hot italian sausage and mix with the bacon pieces/grease. Cook fully. Then add in (roughly) two eggplants that have been peeled and cubed into about the size of dice. (I used one large eggplant and one smaller one because thats all they had in the store). Toss with the meat so the eggplant gets a little bit of the grease on it. You don't have to go crazy and make sure every piece gets covered... just a stir or two will suffice. Pour one jar of pasta sauce on top (I used sugar free marinara) and then somewhere around 1/4-1/2 jar of water. Mix well. Turn the heat up a bit so it boils, then turn the heat back down to about medium and put the cover on, but open a bit so steam can escape. Let that sit for about 10 or 15 minutes so that the sauce thickens and the eggplant softens some. Grab your ladle and serve!

Oh, usually grated parm cheese gets added to the top when serving, but I didn't do that... it's good either way.

Man I'm gonna have to make this again. Just writing this out made me hungry