Baked Eggplant Rollatini

This was another find of SO's.  Turns out it isn't really so much a middle-of-the-week recipe, as it too me quite a while to cook and assemble.  I started shortly after 6pm and we ate at 7:30pm. Mind you I was stopping to help SSO with homework throughout, and being the first time I tried this, it wasn't the fastest process.  I'm sure I could cut down the time significantly next time.

Anyway, this is a traditional Italian dish even if the word Rollatini is not. A quick search reveals that the Italians call it Involtini di Melanzane. There are recipes everywhere for this, strange I've never come across this before. Maybe not so strange, I'm not the biggest eggplan fan, except for one huge exception: in Thai restaurants there is a dish with Asian eggplant that is to die for. OK maybe two exceptions - good Chinese restaurants will have a dish with eggplant and black bean sauce. Yum.

I think a few key things helped make this successful - the thinness of the eggplant slices, and the prociutto. I've seen some recipes calling for 1/2" slices - too thick in my opinion. I've seen all sorts of strange ways to combine cheese and egg, too complicated. Also suggested was pre-sprinkling with salt to rid excess moisture and bitterness.  Well maybe I would do this, but there are so many strong flavours going on here that I never noticed any bitterness.  I actually messed up the beginning part - you are supposed to dip, crumb, and fry the eggplant in that order. I was so tired and in a rush that I forgot to dip and crumb even though I had prepared it and the bowls were sitting in front of me. So after frying (and after it had cooled a bit) I dipped and crumbed, and re-fried for a minute. Turned out awesome.

Eggplant Rollatini - before baking

Next time I will use home-made spaghetti sauce, rather than stuff from a jar. Other than that, there wasn't much I didn't like about it. SO was very happy with it - it is just the sort of dish she really likes. Was sort of satisfying rolling the little bundles up too. It took time, but was just, well, easy. We ended up serving with Cappelini (meaning: thin hair), which (I had to look this up too) is one step up from angel hair pasta. I will also say that it is one of those dishes that isn't a 10/10 to look at, but certainly scores big in the taste department.

Eggplant Rollatini - after baking

Next Time: will use fresh/home-made spag sauce

Me: 8/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a

Baked Eggplant Rollatini
This will make enough for 4 adults.
Ingredients

• One decent sized eggplant, peeled and sliced lengthwise in 1/4" slices (thin!)
• One egg, beaten (for batter dipping)
• A cup of either Italian bread crumbs, or plain bread crumbs with plenty of dried parsley, dried oregano leaves, and pepper. I ran out of bread crumbs so I used Panko instead.
• A bit of veg oil for pan frying
• Small tub of ricotta cheese, you won't use it all
• One slice of prociutto for each rollup, you will need 8 to 12
• 2 cups good quality mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Either Cappelini or Angle Hair pasta, enough for 4 people

Method

1. Put some water in a large pot to boil for the pasta.
2. Dip each eggplant slice in the egg and then coat both sides with the bread crumbs. Fry both sides in a hot pan until lightly browned. You will probably get 4 slices or so per batch, so while you are cooking the next batch, do the next step.
3. Places slices on a board. Slather some ricotta on each slice, then place one piece of prociutto on top. Roll up the slices, and place in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
4. After all the roll-ups are in the dish, cover with spaghetti sauce and then sprinkle with the mozzarella. Bake in 350 deg oven for 15-20 minutes. 
5. Near the end of the 20 minutes, cook the pasta, it will probably be only a few minutes. 
6. Serve over the pasta.