Ragazzi, you have heard of eggplant rollatini, no? It's kind of a standard dish on any Italian restaurant, especially one that features dishes from the south. And it's also pretty much all over the menu of Italian American restaurants. What Annalena finds surprising is that so few people make it at home. And she's as guilty as anyone else in not making it. Well, while we can still get eggplant, and it won't be too much longer, ragazzi, let's make some. It's nowhere near as involved as eggplant parmagiana, and there's no frying. It's a good change of pace, it's filling, and you'll feel SO pround of yourself when you make your substantial vegetarian meal, and learn a few skills along the way.
Did you know how eggplant got its name? Well , the original eggplants, were white. Yes they were. The purple ones were a sport mutation, as they are called. They became more popular, and crowded out the white ones, because white eggplant show their bruises and their damage more easily than do purple ones (this is the same phenomenon that limits our access to yellow tomatoes, which are the originals, or to white peaches, and other light colored fruits and vegetables). In the case of eggplants, Annalena is told that white ones are sweeter, but she cannot tell the difference. And since she doesn't look for sweetness in eggplant (although some feel you can substitute eggplant for banana in many banana desserts: eggplant split anyone? Annalena thinks not), she doesn't pay any attention to this distinction, but gets the eggplant which suit her purpose.
In this case, medium sized purple ones do just fine.
So we have our eggplant, and we have just turned on our oven to 400. Now, we are going to make vertical slices of the eggplant. THIN ones, but not paper thin. Then, we are going to toss them with a little olive oil:
You can see how at least one slice has soaked up more than its share of oil? This is ok. Annalena does not salt, nor drain, her eggplants. Yes, the standard wisdom says you do this to drain the bitterness, but Annalena doesn't taste it. So she goes forward. After you've sliced and slicked your eggplant, also oil a grill and get it nice and hot. Then, start adding your eggplant slices:
You do not HAVE to grill them: you are simply trying to get the slices pliable. Annalena finds that grilling them gets them done faster than baking, and adds a layer of smoky flavor. If you want to bake the slices, however, make sure the oil coat is good, oil the baking sheet, and roast at 400 degrees for about five minutes, and then turn the slices over and do them again. For grilling, 3 minutes to a side is plenty: get the degree of grill marks you like
You can stack them on a plate, and this will help them steam, and become more pliable
Eggplant done. Now we have some fun. Keep in mind that you have a lot of leeway here with your filling. Annalena likes three cheese: ricotta, mozzarella, and fontina cheese. She cubes the mozzarella and fontina, but does not go crazy dissecting the pieces for eveneness
Take a slice of eggplant, and put a goodly spoon of your filling (and again, use what you like, just season it well), at the thickets end of the slice:
Do you see how there's just a little bit of uncoated vegetable at the top? Well, that's your tab for rolling. This filling is thick, so you don't have to worry about "ooze," and in any event, ooze is good here. Roll from the top down and try to make sure you get a complete roll:
As you roll these, you put them in a baking dish, with a little tomato sauce on the bottom. Keep stuffing until you run out of eggplant, which will probably be before you run out of filling (Annalena used a pound each of mozzarella and ricotta, and half of fontina:
Cover this with any tomato sauce you have left over, and also with any leftover filling. Put it in the oven, and bake it, for forty minutes, at 400. At the end, run it under the broil selection, for two minutes, and you get before you put it in the oven:
And after it comes out of the oven:
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