This was given to me by a member of my church. Until she moved away she was a professional chef at the White House and at the Congressional Country Club. It's vegetarian and yummy. Prep is easy, but you do have to put in a little oven time to heat everything up. It's worth it though if you don't mind the texture of eggplant. I'm posting it so you can enjoy it too.
Eggplant Roulatti (serves about 4)
1 large eggplant
olive oil, salt, pepper
1 lb. ricotta cheese
2 oz (about 1/2 cup) mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 egg
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs*
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tsp dry Italian herbs**
pinch of salt, pepper
jar of marinara sauce
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese***
1. Turn on broiler.
2. Trim ends off eggplant and slice (top to bottom) in long flat sheets about 1/2 inch thick, or a little less.
3. Lightly oil, salt, and pepper both sides of eggplant.
4. Place foil on two baking sheets and place eggplant on sheets and broil until golden brown (about 5 min.). Turn over and brown other side. This step takes about 20 min to do since there are two baking sheets.
5. While eggplant is in the oven, mix ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, egg, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper in bowl.
6. Pour some marinara in bottom of casserole dish (maybe about 2 qt? dish). When eggplant comes out of the oven, turn oven on to 375 F.
7. When eggplant is done and cooled a little, place a large spoonful of cheese mixture on the wide part of the eggplant sheet. Roll up eggplant to contain cheese. Place eggplant in casserole dish.
8. Pour marinara over eggplant rolls. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
9. Bake at 375 F until golden brown and bubbly, maybe 30-40 minutes. While it's baking, make any side dishes you want, or sit down and relax. :)
Last night I served this with corn and tomato salad: cook fresh corn, slice off kernels, use the back of a knife to extract the milk, add to chopped tomatoes****, chopped cilantro, scallions, and lime juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mmmmm. Good.
*To make your own bread crumbs, whirl some bread in a food processor, spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 F. Stir every ten minutes until crumbs are brown and crispy (about 15-20 min).
**I realize now I totally forgot this ingredient last night when I made this. It still tasted great.
***Don't use that gross pre-grated powdery stuff that comes in a green can. Yuck.
**** You must use tomatoes you grow yourself, or ones from a farmer's market. Otherwise you're just wasting your time.
2 comments:
you got this from someone who works at the White House kitchen. No wonder it tastes so good. Mom keeps on talking about it on the phone.
Glad you liked it. And, if you don't mind heating up your kitchen in the summer, it's a great way to use seasonal produce.
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