eggplant involtini – smitten kitchen
From Alexandra Stafford — who I hope you observe, as you will be so motivated, too — I ended up including lemon zest to the filling and ending the dish with lemon juice. I definitely adore it below but if you’re not into lemon, you can skip it. If you do not want make the sauce, you can use 3 cups geared up sauce as an alternative. I bake the eggplant in 2 cups, and use the past 1 cup for serving.
To roast: Transfer to oven and cook for 10 to 12 minutes on the to start with facet, then flip each and every slice and roast for a further 8 to 10 on the second, right until browned on just about every facet.
To grill: Grill more than strong warmth until finally darkish marks show up on just about every side, about 8 minutes for the to start with facet and 5 minutes for the second.
For both equally methods: Established eggplant aside to interesting. If your oven is not presently heated to 425, do so now.
Although eggplant cools, make the sauce: Warmth 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 11- to 12-inch pot around medium, incorporate minced garlic, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and a pinch or 3 of purple pepper flakes, and dried oregano. Cook for one particular minute. Add tomatoes (it will splatter, be careful) and stir. Prepare dinner at a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring sometimes. Though it simmers, assemble your eggplant rolls.
When the sauce is accomplished, flavor and increase a lot more seasoning, as needed. If you’d like it smoother, you can mix to your wished-for regularity. This yields 3 cups sauce. In advance of assembling, ladle out 1 cup sauce and set it apart for serving. If your pan you built the sauce in is ovenproof, you are superior to go. If it’s not, transfer all but 1 cup reserved sauce to a 2-quart baking dish.
Assemble the involtini: In a bowl, mix ricotta, mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan, lemon zest, about 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a several grinds of black pepper. Position about 1 tablespoon at the end of every single comprehensive-sized slice of cooked eggplant, a small much less on compact kinds, utilizing all of the filling, Roll into a cigar. Place every roll in geared up sauce, seam aspect down.
Bake: Brush tops of eggplant rolls flippantly with olive oil and bake uncovered close to 30 minutes, until finally bubbly all over the edges and browned on major. Squeeze lemon juice over the best and scatter with basil leaves prior to serving. Provide very hot, with reserved sauce and extra grated parmesan cheese, if sought after, on the aspect.
Serve with: Garlic bread, maybe? Or spaghetti, if you have children or kids-at-coronary heart.
