In the Greek diet, pasta figures in both vegetarian recipes and with animal protein, such as the classic baked Greek pasta recipe, pastitsio. My personal favorites are the Greek pasta recipes that bring to mind the best of the Mediterranean diet, with Mediterranean ingredients that focus on plants. This Greek recipe for penne calls for charring long thin eggplants – Japanese eggplant is a good variety for that. It also calls for tossing the pasta with extra virgin Greek olive oil and herbs. If you wanted to make this a tad richer, you could always add a little crumbled Greek feta.