Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Yummy eggplant thingy, AKA involtini
Tonight, I tried to reproduce an eggplant dish I had in San Francisco at Ti Piacera. Involtini, it’s called: thinly sliced eggplant rolled around a cheesy filling, broiled and served with a red sauce. My verdict: not bad. Certainly worthy for company. Not easy, but what the hell.
The eggplant
Peel the sucker and slice it thinly (1/8 inch or so) from top to bottom — lengthwise, not crosswise. Salt the slices and let them drain for at least 30 minutes. Rinse off the salty sweat and drain on paper towels.
The red sauce
Leftovers from last night’s ravioli: one big can of chopped tomatoes, a sauteed onion, couple cloves of garlic, crushed, pepper, olive oil, a dash of fish sauce. Simmer a good long time.
The filling
Also a leftover from last night’s ravioli. I sauteed about a pound of baby spinach in butter and, when wilted, I let it drain. In a food processor, I placed the spinach, salt, pepper, about 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese, another 1/2 cup of parmigiano reggiano, some grated fresh asiago, some nutmeg, and two egg yolks. Process until smooth.
The preparation
Saute the eggplant slices and drain on paper towels.
At one end of each slice, place a rounded teaspoonful of filling, a bit of mozarella cheese (roughly 1 – 2 teaspoons), a bit of fresh basil. Roll it up.
Arrange the rolls in a greased baking dish and bake at 250F until thoroughly heated — about 30 min. Then broil until slightly brown on top.
Spoon red sauce over the top. Sprinkle with finely chopped fresh basil.
Hey, you know what we haven’t done in a while?
Recipe requests. Got any?
D.
I think you could describe cooking an old tennis shoe and make it sound appetizing. I don’t cook but I always read your recipes and think “I might could do that.”
Is Christmas over yet?
No! And we’re not there yet, either, so quit asking, or so help me I’ll come back there and I’ll, I’ll, you don’t want to know what I’ll do!
LOL.man, that sounds familiar…
Grapenut pudding. I’m really missing Grapenut pudding. It’s how to get the custard bit so firm and wobbly a la blancmange (which sounds like a dirty word for girl bits to me.) I always liked how the crusty bottom was Grapenuts, and some would to the top and make a top crust too, with the custard in the middle.
I’m homesick for New England, do they make grapenut pudding anywhere else in the US?
Lyvvie, how does this sound?
I’ve never even heard of Grapenut pudding, so I’m not going to pretend to make up a recipe of my own.
Your Involtini sounds pretty tasty. We love anything with eggplant. Tomorrow I am making Moussaka (it’ll give me a chance to use the Jack cheese you sent). Got a good Moussaka recipe?
Your Involtini sounds pretty tasty. We love anything with eggplant. Tomorrow I am making Moussaka (it’ll give me a chance to use the Jack cheese you sent). Got a good Moussaka recipe?
Something other than spanikopita or baklava that I can do with the filo dough in my freezer for a New Year’s eve party.
I LOVE this blog… discovered it by following a multitude of links… It is wonderful. You are a great writer. Very funny. I am an adult premed student and a writer of sorts, too. My biggest love is biology and wildlife conservation and study. I also am another person who refuses to bend over for Bush… ick! Take care- Happy Holidays.
Your orders have been taken. Moussaka for my sis, a filo recipe for Miss Kate. And a big hello to Miz VikkiJean, who claims on her Myspace blog to be 42, but I don’t believe it. She likes spiders, too. Here’s one for ya, Miz VJ!
I beg your pardon? 1964… u do the math. Hey, if you come up with a sum less that 42 I wanna know! And great photo of the spider. I have 4 visiting arachnids this holiday… one is an ariadna bicolor who has created a wonderful tunnel web b/t the glass and screen of a window. The others I have yet to identify, but plan to do so w/in the coming days. Thanks for visiting… I used to keep a blog, mostly nonesense, but when classes hit hard I let it go. Miss it. Miss writing. I begin pharmacology in 8 days, studying ahead. Hoping they give samples. 🙂 Again, thanks for the verbal offerings. Nice break from pharmacotherapeutics… cheers, Miz VJ
You claim to be 42, but your pic looks 17. What’s up with that?
Best of luck with pharm.
I’ll make it this weekend and let you know. Are you going to try it? Grapenut pudding is wonderful, wonderful addictive and great.
Kate, the Scots do lots of recipes with filo pastry. One of the most popular at this time of year is haggis and plum sauce in little parcels. I doubt you’ll get a real haggis, then again who knows you find everything in America, but you’ll get loads of options. Mini parcels make great canapes, bigger ones for mains. (sorry to butt in there Doug, but really – Scots and filo go together.) I even found a recipe for a filo wrapped Mars bar. Actually, sounds great!
[…] What was I doing a year ago? Not posting, apparently. On Dec. 23, 2006, I posted a recipe for involtini. Year before that, I posted a question on ending the first book of my trilogy with a cliffhanger. I’d say Salma is an improvement. […]