This past week I took my oldest son out to lunch. Since he
lives on Budget Gourmets I thought it would be nice to take him somewhere
without a drive thru. My choice of restaurant was a local Italian place which
we normally order pizza from. I thought it would be nice to try something other
than their pizza (which is the best…and closest thing you’ll find to New York
Pizza in Oklahoma) so I chose their eggplant rollitini. It had been years since
I’d had this dish and it fit perfectly into the section I’m currently studying
with Penn Foster… not to mention it tasted amazing. It tasted so good that I
wanted to go home and make a batch of it right away. It took me a few days but
I finally got around to it and I have to say it didn’t disappoint.
Eggplant can be a funny food to cook and if you don’t make
it correctly it’s going to be either soggy or too hard. Growing up the only way
I would eat my eggplant was after it had been dipped in flour, egg, breadcrumbs
and then fried. As I got older I realized that the parmesan version of eggplant
was fantastic and then I discovered eggplant rollitini. Eggplant Rollitini is
thinly sliced eggplant, stuffed with ricotta cheese then topped with tomato
sauce and mozzarella.
Making this dish gave me a chance to practice many of the
topics I’m currently studying so I thought I’d take the opportunity and share
it with you. And hey…if you feel like making the recipe…go right ahead.
Cut the top off of a ripe eggplant, then peel.
Cut peeled eggplant into very thin slices.
Blanch eggplant slices.
Shock blanched eggplant in some ice water, then place on
paper towel to dry.
Spoon ricotta cheese onto the eggplant then roll up.
Spread some sauce (I used a prepared spaghetti sauce that
was described as zesty and spicy) onto the bottom of a baking dish, then place
the rolled up eggplant in the baking dish.
Top it off with a little more sauce then some fresh mozzarella.
Bake until eggplants are tender and cheese is bubbly.
