Cheesey Eggplant Rollatini Deliciousness!

I think I’m having a real problem this week.  Once again, I found myself obsessively thinking about a recipe–this recipe.  My mother-in-law gave me a new cookbook on our most recent trip north…it’s a Taste of Home cookbook, and you may not know this, but I LOVE Taste of Home.  Soooooo many of their recipes are A-MA-ZING and I’ve just gotten so many great ideas from them over the years.  So, in my first “flip through” of this cookbook as I will call it, I generally flip through and decide what I want to try and mark it with a post-it.  Well, in the course of flipping through this, I found an eggplant rollatini recipe that looked fabulous.  It’s deep fried, so how could it NOT look fabulous!  But healthy?  It looked far from it!

It IMMEDIATELY reminded me of a recipe I had seen on Rachael Ray, where she used Italian sausage in her rollatinis in roasted eggplant.  I thought the mister would probably enjoy a little meat in his dinner, so decided to try to mix these two recipes.  I’m not a big fan of roasted eggplant–I wanted something that was going to hold up better to the sauce and cheese, and not become mushy.

So, here we are….my mixed recipe for eggplant rollatini.  I have to say, it was absolutely FABULOUS!  We normally are not the type to eat leftovers, but we have eaten these two nights in a row, along with lunch.  YUM!  Unfortunately, Mr. Amanda is eating the last of these today for lunch 😦

You must, must, MUST try these!  They do take a bit of work, but they are soooooo worth it!

I already have ideas on how I’m going to try this next, maybe cut out a couple of steps to make it easier to do on a regular basis 😉  I will keep you posted when that happens…..

Cheesey Eggplant Rollatini

Ingredients:

Eggplant

2 small eggplants or 1 large eggplant (it’s usually one or the other at my grocery—either ALL small or ALL huge)

1 Tb salt

¼ c Egg Beaters

½ Tb Italian seasoning

½  c  Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

¼  c grated Parmesan

¼ c extra virgin olive oil

Filling

½  container Light ricotta

½ c 2% shredded mozzarella

¼ c grated Parmesan

½ lb ground turkey BREAST

½ Tb Fennel

½ Tb paprika

Freshly ground pepper

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Sauce

1 Tb extra virgin olive oil

½ large onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomato

½ c chicken broth

½ c tomato paste

2 Tb fresh parsley

2 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried basil

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

1/8  tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Topping

2 Tb grated parmesan cheese

Direction:

Peel your eggplants, and then thinly slice into about 1/8” slices.  Put the sliced eggplant into a colander in a clean sink or on top of a plate.  Toss the eggplant with the salt.  Leave it alone in the colander for at least 30 minutes (the salt draws the extra moisture out of the eggplant).

During the 30 minutes, start the tomato sauce.  Put the olive oil in a large saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, but be sure to stir often—you do not want the garlic to burn!  Once translucent, add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken broth. Mix well.  Season with the parsley, sugar, salt, basil, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Allow the mixture to come to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil—turn the heat down to medium low and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Brown your ground turkey in a skillet.  As it cooks, season with fennel and paprika, along with ground pepper and red pepper flakes to taste (if you don’t want spicy, leave the red pepper flakes out!).  Break up the meat as it cooks.  Drain when thoroughly browned and cooked through.  Set aside to cool.

Once your eggplant has been in the colander with the salt for 30 minutes, rinse well, and then drain.  Pull the slices out of the colander, and pat dry with paper towels—being sure all salt has been thoroughly rinsed off.  Set the slices aside, while you get the breading ready.

In a bowl, or a plate with edges, add the Egg Beaters.  Season with Italian seasoning.

In another bowl or plate, add the Italian breadcrumbs and ¼ c of the grated parmesan.  Mix well.

Now it’s time to bread your eggplant.  For each slice, dip in the Egg Beaters, and then coat well in the breadcrumb/parmesan mixture.  Set aside until all slices have been coated well.

Add ¼  c olive oil to a large skillet, and heat to medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the eggplant slices (will probably take 2-3 batches).  Cook approx 3-5 minutes a side (watch carefully), or until golden brown on each side.  Once browned, remove from skillet onto a paper towel covered plate to help drain any of that oil/grease.  This would also be a great time to go ahead and preheat your oven to 375!

After cooking the eggplants, mix the filling.  Add the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, and ground turkey.  Season with a little ground black pepper and parsley.

Now you are ready to assemble.

Add about 1 c of the homemade tomato sauce to the bottom of an ungreased baking dish (I used a 7×11).

Spread 2 tablespoons of filling over each eggplant slice.  Roll up and place seam side down in the dish.  Continue filling the remaining slices.  Spoon or pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the egg plant rollatinis.  Sprinkle with the last of the Parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees or until bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Servings: ~9 (depends on how many strips you get from your eggplant)

Per serving (1 roll):

Calories: 168

Fat: 5.9 g

Fiber: 4.9 g

WW pt: 3