Monday, January 11, 2010

Recipe: Italian Rollatini

Day Two of my quest for the perfect menu has come to a close. Tonight we had Italian Rollatini, another recipe from RachaelRay.Com. Here's what's up:

INGREDIENTS


•2 medium eggplants, each sliced lengthwise into 6 slices about 1/4-inch thick (I only used one large eggplant)
•3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
•Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•3/4 pound sweet Italian chicken, turkey or tofu sausage, casings removed
•1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
•1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (that's fancy talk for Parmesan), plus additional for sprinkling
•1 can tomato sauce or tomato puree (15 ounces)
•1/4 cup basil leaves, torn

PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.

Lay the eggplant slices out on a baking sheet, drizzle with EVOO on both sides and season with salt and pepper.


Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through, until the eggplant is tender and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

While the eggplant is roasting, in a medium skillet with one turn of the pan of EVOO, brown the sausage, about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon or potato masher as it cooks.


Remove the sausage from skillet with a slotted spoon to a medium bowl. Let cool, then mix in the mozzarella cheese and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.


Spread a little tomato sauce down on the bottom of a baking dish and sprinkle with the torn basil.

Lay two pieces of roasted eggplant out lengthwise on a cutting board, overlapping them about an inch. Mound some sausage-cheese mixture at the short end of the eggplant slices. (I used an ice cream scoop, as you will often see me do. It makes the PERFECT shape and just the right amount for alot of things.)

Roll them up, then lay the roll seam-side down on top of the sauce in the baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the eggplant until the baking dish is full – you should have 6 of them.

Spoon more sauce over the eggplant rolls, then sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the eggplant is warmed through and the cheese is bubbling.

THE END RESULT


This meal was AMAZING! We all loved it - even Betsy, and she's in her picky toddler stage. Chris gave it a rating of "10". It took 35 minutes to make (not including slicing time), so I am pretty happy. I'll end it with an overall of 9.5 because it was a tad bit over time and it was a little hard for me to cut (but I'm a weakling anyway). This one is a total WIN for a weeknight meal.

We even had leftovers of the sausage-sauce-cheese mix.




I think it'll be wonderful over some ziti.

5 comments:

  1. Minus the sausage, that looks really yummy. I may have to try that one.

    I'm not a sausage eater. (that's what she said! ;) ) (sorry, I couldn't resist)

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  2. Hahahaa nice one Diana! BTW, the sausage is made of chicken. It was amazing. SO yummy.

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  3. That looks great, thanks for the recipe!

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  4. This one is totally going on the menu!

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  5. I don't usually eat eggplant but this looks gooooood!

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