Keeping her promise: a rollatini/parmesan hybrid

Ragazzi, yesterday Annalena taught you how to make a tasty vegetable and olive oil based tomato sauce.  At the end of it, you had two quarts of it.  And you may be wondering "what am I gonna do with all of this sauce.?"  Well, Annalena is here to the rescue.  And yes,  you are welcome.

Eggplant season has started and Annalena is hitching up her crinolines and dancing.  She LOVES eggplant.  Does anyone else besides Annalena remember "The Eggplant Song" by Michael Franks?"  Here they are ragazzi:

http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/michael-franks-lyrics/eggplant-lyrics.html


And DO go to  youtube and listen.  Well, Annalena is sort of like that woman with the Giocanda kind of look.  And she does make her eggplant AT LEAST 19 different ways, but never raw with mayonnaise. 

This recipe came out of necessity, the way most recipes do.  Annalena had bought three medium sized eggplants from the farmers market, and did not want to lose them (the way she did her first two).  So she looked in her fridge for what she had.  Yes, all the ingredients for a classic parmagiana, but that is not where Annalena wanted to go with this recipe.  See, she wanted a lighter dish (she didn't get one, but oh well), because after a vigorous struggle, Annalena is losing weight again.    Also, expediency ruled here:  in the refrigerator was a pound of sheeps milk ricotta from dancing ewe farms, which was a week old, and threatennig to go bad. When you pay 15.00 for a pound of ricotta,  you do not eliminate it easily. 

Eggplant rollatini has ricotta in it, but truth to be told, Annalena has never had a rollatini that she found satisfying.  So, she combined the elements of rollatini, and parmagiana,  to make what she thinks is a brand new dish. Shall we call it "melanzana allo stilo Annalena?"  Let's.

So, you have a quart of your sauce from the prior recipe. Now, we make a custard of a pound of good quality ricotta (and again, Annalena will smite you if you are using the stuff that ends in an -O).  Add to that two large eggs, a handful of  torn basil leaves, any other herbs you may find of interest, and a hefty teaspoon of salt.  Taste it, and if it needs salt, add more.

Now, let us address the eggplants.  You do not need to peel these, but you do need to cut the stem end away.   Then, make LONG cuts of thin slices of eggplant.  You will want about 5-6 from each vegetable, but worry not if you get less.  Preheat your oven to 400, and when that is happening, brush baking sheets lightly with olive oil, and then each slice of eggplant  - even the inevitable, little tiny ones that have skin on them from the end.    Put them in the oven and roast, for about 10-15 minutes.  If you remember to turn them, fine, if not, no big deal.  They will shrink, and  you will be able to gather all of them on one baking sheet - you will probably need two to start.

Let us begin constructing the dish.  Put some tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan - ceramic or glass please (NEVER use metal with tomato.  The acid and the metal react to give a bad taste, and probably create toxins).  Now, put down a layer of eggplant slices.  They do not need to overlap, and try to use half of what you have, covering as much surface as you can.

Now, pour and spread that ricotta mixture over the slices.  It will be wet, and will pour very easily.  Then, cover it with the eggplant slices which remain.  Cover those slices with more sauce, and then slice mozzarella over the sauce. 

Put the whole pan in the oven, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.  The cheese will melt and bubble, and the dish will appear very, VERY liquid.  Worry not. The eggs, as they cool, will bind up the dish very well.

You have noticed there is no parmesan in the dish?  True, because you should put that on before you warm it up and serve it, because parmesan burns if it is heated too much.

Not too difficult, huh?  You will want pasta with this dish. Perhaps something with pesto?  Or, as some would, with leftover sauce.  However you slice it, it is a dish for mid summer through the fall.  Annalena commends you to making her namesake dish