Eggplant Rollatini

It's been a few posts since my last eggplant recipe, so enter the Eggplant Rollatini post.  I am actually shocked I haven't blogged about this recipe already-- it's one of my favorite dishes! It seems like a fancy presentation but it's actually pretty simple. You've heard me say this before, but I'll say it again: in lieu of pasta, pair with the vegetable of your choice. I opted for steamed broccoli.  The dish is pretty heavy in itself and it wont hurt to skip the extra carbs.  If you absolutely have to have the pasta, opt for whole wheat for the extra fiber.  

Eggplant Rollatini (serves 4)
1 medium eggplant, peeled
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup bread crumbs, Italian Style
1 egg (beat w/ about 1/4 cup water)
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, reduced fat
1/2 package frozen spinach, cooked and drained 
1 egg white
garlic powder
onion powder
dried parsley 
fresh basil --optional
tomato sauce --either homemade or jarred

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  After you peel the eggplant, cut it the long way into 8 even slices.  At the store, try to pick a shorter eggplant--if it's too long they will be awkward to roll. 

Next set up a breading station: flour mixed with garlic and onion powder (a hefty shake of each) on a plate, egg and water beaten in a wide bottomed dish, and bread crumbs on another plate.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and start breading the eggplant like this...

1) flour it, shake off the excess

2) dip it in the egg

3) dip it in the bread crumbs

Lay the eggplant onto the sprayed baking sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the eggplant softens a little.  It'll get cooked again-- this first time is to just get it soft enough to roll up (keep the oven on).  While the eggplant is baking, prepare the filling.  In a bowl, mix the ricotta, mozzarella cheese, egg white and spinach.  Make sure you cool the spinach before you add it to the mix, you don't want to cook the egg white!  Add a little more garlic and onion powder.  The sauce I used is already loaded with garlic so I held off on adding fresh garlic, but that would be perfectly acceptable.  If you have fresh basil, that will only make it better (I didn't have any, sad day!).  I also added a little bit of parsley flakes to the mix. 

Spray a baking dish with a little cooking spray (I lined w/ tin foil). When the eggplant is out of the oven, spoon an even amount of filling --roughly a 1/4 cup to the end of the each slice and roll up.  Place in the baking dish with the ends down.

1) add the filling

2) roll it up, ends down

3) repeat x7

Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for another 15-20 minutes, until the filling is bubbly.  Top with tomato sauce, sprinkle some grated cheese on top if you like and embark on the delicious journey that is eggplant rollatini!