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Involtini di Melanzane Recipe

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Category:
Category:
Ingredients:  
Ingredients:  
1 very large oblong eggplant
1/2 pound fresh ricotta, grated
1 cup of mixed grated Parmigiano and grated Mozzarella - save four tablespoons for the end!
1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 coffee spoon of finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup of chopped Italian parsley
Fresh basil leaves
1 1/4 cups tomato sauce
enough olive oil to drizzle over the rolls and for frying the eggplants
salt and pepper
Directions:
Directions:
Slice the eggplant in half inch slices. Each size should be big enough to be wrapped around a spoonful of the filling that you will prepare with the rest of the ingredients.
Once you have sliced them all, put the slices in a colander with salt and a dish on top. What you want to make sure is that the slices release some of the brown juice they contain - so put some weight on top of the plate.

Let the slices to release the juice for about 20 minutes and in the meantime grate the cheeses and mix them together. Also get yourself some breadcrumbs - my suggestion is that you get some ciabatta bread and that you whiz it. You want the crumbs to be really small!

In a bowl go ahead and mix the grated cheeses with the crumbs, 1 egg, the ricotta cheese, garlic, chopped parsley and salt and pepper. You want to make sure that the filling you have just made holds together and is somewhat fluffy and not stodgy.

Rinse the salt off the eggplant, pat the slices dry, and fry them for a few minutes, until golden. Remove them to an absorbent sheet of paper.

Take a baking tray and cover it with some olive oil and some tomato sauce. Fill each slice with the filling and form a series of rolls which you will put on the tray, one next to the other.

Once you have completed that, cover with some more tomato sauce - enough to get the rolls to be nice and moist. Cover with the grated cheeses you have saved and put in the oven at 350ºF for about 20/25 minutes.
Number Of Servings:
Number Of Servings:
4
Preparation Time:
Preparation Time:
50 minutes
Personal Notes:
Personal Notes:
This recipe comes from my mother and her family in Calabria - the toe of Italy. I used to eat this as a child and it's my favourite dish every time there is a holiday. There is also a meat variety - which you can do by replacing the ricotta with any kind of ground meat. As they say in Calabria "Panza chjina fa cantari [A full stomach makes you sing]"...so eat until you are really full.

The rolls are great as an appetizer or as a side dish.

 

 

 

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