When you’ve got eggplant, ricotta and marinara, just roll with it

Joe Yonan

First things first, says Lidia Bastianich. Before I can even get the first question out of my mouth when I call her to talk about one of my favorite Italian dishes, she wants to make sure I know something very important. “Rollatini is not an Italian word,” she says.

No, it’s not. In Italy, eggplant rollatini - the dish I’m interviewing her about - is known as involtini di melanzane, right alongside all the other involtini: di pollo, di carne, di vitello, di pesce, to mean little bundles of chicken, meat, veal or fish, “anything you roll,” she says. “Rollatini is an Italian American invention.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Bastianich, a longtime television cooking show star, cookbook author and restaurateur, has always celebrated the glories of Italian American cuisine, often dishes that immigrants adapted to use local ingredients. In the case of eggplant rollatini, though, the name is the only thing that changed. Italians, especially south of Rome, have historically depended on eggplant as an alternative to animal proteins out of a need for economy, making it a staple of Italy’s cucina povera.

“I think eggplant became so beloved originally because when there was no meat, it kind of acted like meat,” she says. “In the north, we used cabbage for the same purpose.”

In fact, she never tasted involtini di melanzane until she opened her first restaurant in 1971 in Queens, with an Italian American cook, and they put it on the menu. “It’s a favorite,” she says.

If you’re not already acquainted, what makes the dish so special is the simple interplay of soft eggplant, creamy ricotta and a slightly sweet marinara sauce - store-bought or homemade. It has all the beauty of eggplant parmesan but with its own unique appeal. Most of the cheese is in the filling, not on top of the dish, so rather than a gooey melted mozzarella blanket over and in between layers of fried eggplant that you cut like a lasagna (I’m not complaining), you get discreet parmesan-dusted eggplant bundles with a milky filling oozing out into the marinara - and onto the plate. What’s not to love?

Bastianich’s tips include picking a firm, fresh eggplant, cutting it in thick slices, dredging them in flour and panfrying before draining, cooling, rolling, nestling in the sauce and baking until bubbly. Thankfully, before I could confess to her my own shortcut adaptations to her recipe, she volunteers: “There’s also the method of grilling the eggplant slices - or of baking them,” both popular with modern cooks interested in lighter dishes.

However you cook the eggplant initially, she says, “You don’t have to worry about whether it’s fully cooked or not, because you’re going to bake it again.” In other words, there’s virtually no chance the eggplant will end up with that unpleasant spongy texture that has unfortunately turned way too many people off.

As Bastianich says, this is the time to go for the best ricotta you can find: whole milk and as fresh as possible. Of course, you can make your own. Bastianich says she would often bake rollatini for her mother, Grandma Erminia, who remembered the childhood joys of ricotta made fresh from her family’s goats. Or, if you’re vegan, you can use one of my other adaptations: a filling built on artichoke hearts, cashews and seasonings, the same one I use for Baked Stuffed Shells.

No matter how you adapt it - and whatever you decide to call it - eggplant rollatini delivers a pan of pure, Italian-style comfort.

Eggplant Rollatini

Servings: 6 (makes 12 rollatini in sauce)

Active time: 45 minutes. Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

INGREDIENTS

2 to 3 medium eggplants (1kg), about 12cm wide

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

350g whole-milk ricotta

170g fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)

110g parmesan cheese, grated (1 2/3 cups), divided

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1/4 cup water

2 1/2 cups store-bought or homemade marinara sauce (one 680g jar)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, plus more for serving

DIRECTIONS

Position one rack in the middle of the oven and another about 6 inches away from the broiling element. Preheat the grill to high. (If your oven is too small for this arrangement, position a rack 15cm away from the broiling element, then once you are done broiling, use oven mitts to move it to the middle of the oven.)

Trim the stems from the eggplants. Slice off a thin layer of skin and flesh from one of the long sides of each eggplant so that they lie flat on the cutting board. With the bottom end facing you, cut the eggplants lengthwise into 1.2cm-thick slices, to get about 12 slices. Chop the pieces you trimmed off, and reserve them for the sauce.

Arrange the eggplant slices on a large sheet pan (overlapping them slightly, if necessary), brush both sides with about 2 tablespoons of the oil and sprinkle with the salt.

Grill the eggplant for 3 to 6 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Flip the slices over, and continue grilling for another 3 to 6 minutes, or until golden brown and soft. Transfer the slices to a plate to cool, turn off the grill and set the oven to 200C

While the eggplant is grilling, in a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, mozzarella, half of the parmesan, the egg and parsley until well-combined. You should get about 3 cups of the filling.

In a large (30cm) ovenproof pan over medium-high heat, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil until shimmering. Add the reserved chopped eggplant and the water, cover and cook until the eggplant is tender, about 4 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring constantly, until the water has evaporated, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the marinara sauce, stir in the basil and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat.

When the eggplant slices have cooled, scoop 1/4 cup filling onto one short end of an eggplant slice, roll the slice around the filling and nestle the roll, seam side down, in the sauce in the skillet, spooning a little of the sauce on top of the roll. Repeat with the remaining eggplant slices and filling.

Sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the eggplant rolls. Bake on the middle rack for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling. Garnish with more basil and serve hot.