Stewed Eggplant over Conchiglie Pasta with Vegan Apple-Sage Sausage

The eggplant that I started last night in my 1.5 quart slow cooker cooked about 8 hours, from approximately 11a till 7p. I turned the heat off and tasted the sauce; it was okay but too subtly flavored, so I diced about a quarter of a red jalapeno pepper and mixed it in, as well as fresh herbs from my garden - about a teaspoon of oregano and maybe a tablespoon of coarsely chopped basil leaves.

I served the sauce, topped with Eat in the Raw's Parma! vegan "Parmesan cheese", on organic Conchiglie seashell-shaped organic pasta made at the Montebello Monastery in Marche, Italy. I also grilled a Field Roast Grain Meat Company apple-sage artisanal vegan sausage and served some soft whole wheat bread with tasty garlic-herb "cream cheese" from Isle of Bute, the Scottish company that makes such tasty vegan cheese. (My wife avoids non-fermented soy products as they upset her stomach; her bread had pesto hummus, and my plate omitted the hard bread stick.)

Perhaps the proof of the dinner was our guest who claimed to dislike eggplant - and she loved the dinner. My wife did, too. I thought that the sauce could have been a little more flavorful, and would like to try something like this again, but add less eggplant and more tomato, and perhaps add some other ingredient, such as capers or, at serving time, dried fried onion bits.