Oh, and on the subject of eggplant and italian food.

When I was doing Protein Power, I developed a recipe for eggplant lasagna which I continue to make on special occasions to this day. There's no pasta in it, the eggplant stands in its place, and you can make it to be fairly low in fat.

I use a good basic vegetarian sauce (usually homemade, and you could use a meat sauce if you liked.) I mix low-fat ricotta with a couple of beaten eggs and some parmesan for the custardy-layer. And I use part-skimmed mozarella for the cheese. I usually grill the sliced eggplant with a little olive oil first, then when cool, just layer everything in the usual way. Very yummy.