Insert Clever Title Here

Good evening faithful foodies! Please forgive my lack of creativity, but I just couldn't think good word play around "Eggplant Rollatini" that wasn't the epitome of cheese ball. Moving on, tonight we plunge into more "Everyday Contorni" with the second recipe in the "Stuffed Vegetables" section; Eggplant Rollatini!! I'm a HUGE eggplant fan, so I was pretty stoked for tonight. More often than not, I will opt for eggplant Parmesan over chicken Parmesan. It's not even for healthy reasons (because a breaded and fried piece of eggplant is pretty much on par with a breaded and fried piece of chicken), I just LOVE eggplant.

Bottom line: I was excited. I began to gather all my necessities once I got back from field hockey practice. As I was packing my little kitchen travel bag, I realized just how much was involved in this recipe. I figured it would be worth it in the end so I continued up to the kitchen with a ten pound bag on my shoulder. On my way up, I couldn't help but think I had forgotten something. It's a familiar feeling for me, and I don't know why I didn't pay more attention to it, because more often than not I get this feeling because I have forgotten something (I once left my field hockey jersey at home when it was needed at a tournament across the country. I will never live it down).

I made it to the kitchen, started unpacking (the other girl in the kitchen probably thought I had packed to spend the night in the kitchen), and realized that I had indeed forgotten something. My cutting board. After approximately two minutes of standing and staring at everything, I decided against venturing back downstairs and instead took on the role of the Great Improviser.

My first order of business was to slice the eggplant. You need to slice it lengthwise, then make 1/2 inch thick slices. In place of my cutting board, I turned my baking dish upside-down and cut the eggplant on top. After cutting it lengthwise, I saw how difficult it would be to make slices of the eggplant with the open half facing one side without losing some fingers in the process. Instead, I put the half cut side down, and cut horizontally. I won't lie, my first cut was pretty jagged, but I really did get better as I went on. I made six slices and discarded the "heels" of the eggplant. I then put salt on each side of the slices and set them aside for 15 minutes (according to Giada, this helps take some of the moisture out of the eggplant. I wish I had known this sooner).

I should probably mention that I made this recipe completely out of recipe order. Rather than bore you with how it should have been carried out, I'll just tell you how it all played out. As the eggplant sat, I mixed the ricotta cheese with the egg. The recipe calls for two eggs, but I wasn't making six servings so I used only one egg. I beat the two together, and realized I probably shouldn't have used the entire egg. Giada didn't indicate what color the mixture should be at this point, so I didn't have anything to compare mine to. I added a little more ricotta, but it didn't make much difference, so I made the executive decision that it WAS supposed to be that yellow.

I next added some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese and "gently" stirred it in as recommended. I was then supposed to add in the toasted pine nuts. Well, I hadn't yet toasted the pine nuts. I quickly threw some in my pan and cranked up the heat. Luckily, they toast up and turn golden brown relatively quickly (and as Rachael Ray says, your nose will know when they're done). Then, I had to play the waiting game and wait for them to cool off. Had I just thrown them into the cheese mixture, I'm pretty sure the egg part would've cooked or the cheese would have curdled or caused some other minor disaster.

As I waited, I added some fresh basil to the cheese mixture. I was feeling kind of lazy so rather than chopping it on my absence of cutting board (the eggplant was currently in the baking dish so that was a no-go), I just tore it apart. Giada cautions not to over-mix the mixture, but I'm pretty sure I did. I don't know if it would have tasted any different if I had mixed it any less. Finally, my pine nuts cooled enough and I tossed them in and continued to over-mix.

After the 15 minutes had expired, I rinsed each piece of eggplant and patted it dry (I should mention here that I hadn't brought anything to dry these with, so I settled with my terry cloth oven mitt). The recipe says that you're supposed to grill the eggplant slices for about four minutes on each side. Well, I didn't feel like schlepping the Foreman grill all the way up the stairs, and I really try to keep my cooking in one room if at all possible (side note: this will be more possible now that we have a double burner in our room! Woohoo!). Instead, I decided to cook the eggplant in the frying pan with some EVOO spray. It cooked up just as well and became tender enough to roll up.

Next, I let one batch of eggplant cool (I had to cook three slices at a time seeing as my pan isn't all that big), and put the other in the pan. Once it was cooled, I put about one tablespoon of the cheese mixture on the smaller end of the slice, then rolled it up and put it seam side down in the baking dish. Of course, me being the slightly impatient cook that I can be, I didn't let all the pieces cool enough and burned myself a little when rolling the slices. You live and you learn.

After all the slices had been cooled (well, let's be honest, not completely cooled) and placed in the baking dish, I covered them with the remainder of my marinara sauce from last week (yes, I did freeze it for the week. I've had too many run-ins with improperly preserved food to take any chances. It only took eating bad chili once and eating Ponderosa and puking all the way back home on a bus to learn this). I then baked the rollatinis for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

I made some friends in the kitchen today and saw that college students DO cook more than mac and cheese and ramen. These girls were cooking pasta with chicken and pesto. YUM. It looked really good. Between the three of us, we made the kitchen smell pretty awesome.

While my dinner was baking, I re-packed my bag. Luckily, most of the food I had brought up was the last of its container so I ended up packing up less than I had brought up. Once it was ready, I took the eggplant rollatini out of the oven, and carried it downstairs. My oven mitt was feeling pretty worthless at this point because that dish was HOT. However, rather than running back to my room, which I was given considerate thought, I walked briskly back and practically threw the dish onto the counter upon my return.

You have to trust me, the picture above doesn't really do the dish justice. It just kind of looks like a plate of marinara sauce. I tried to get a close up of my beautiful rolls of eggplant, but my room unfortunately does not have adequate light as a photo studio should, and it simply wasn't feasible.

This dish, was AWESOME! It was like eggplant Parmesan, but without the breading or frying. The cheese mixture was prefect and not too egg tasting. It started seeping out the sides and crisped a little at the edges (so delicious!). Between pan-searing the eggplant and baking it in the oven, it was so tender that I could cut it with just my fork and the sauce and cheese flavors really enhanced the natural eggplant flavor. De-lish!

For dessert, I decided to finally break into my low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt :) Rather than topping it with chocolate syrup, or caramel, or whipped cream, I opted for a teaspoon of Nutella and a dash of cinnamon. I mixed it up, and it was like an entirely different flavor. I HIGHLY recommend it!

The complete meal was absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to make this one again. My next day of cooking with Giada will be this coming Monday. I will be doing my second dessert, Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese! Check back soon!