I was tortured with eggplant as a child and since then I have never been a fan. It is one vegetable that I truly cannot stand so it was a stretch for me to make this recipe. I have been eyeing it in my pile wondering why I held onto it and then realized it was probably for the "Quick Chicken Potpie" recipe adjacent to this one...sigh. Once I add recipes to my calendar I do not like to remove them so off to the grocery store I went to pick an eggplant. I haven't a clue what a good vs. bad one is, but this one seemed fine. While they were cooking in the oven I kept tasting the sauce as it was simmering and kept thinking, "This is getting tastier and tastier." It started a little sweet and turned into a very nicely spiced red sauce. I liked it so much I've decided it will be my new pasta sauce - it's that good, and just when I thought it couldn't get better, the addition of fresh herbs and croutons was amazing. Really, everything but the eggplant was superb. Eric noted that he couldn't actually taste the eggplant at all. Lucky. He loved the melted mozzarella and everything on top as well.