Eggplant Rolls, Sauce and Sea Scallops

A little Italian:  “Ho Fame“…I’m hungry.  “Andiamo a mangiare qualcosa“…”Let’s get something to eat“.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her husband’s side of the family, the Scialdone’s.  That’s pronounced “Shell-done” with a long “o”.  Of course we began discussing food and cookbooks.  Loretta and Marie said there was actually a cookbook by a John Scialdone.  Now Loretta and Marie have a brother John who has retired to Florida but this is a different John and of no immediate relation to the Scialdone’s my sister married into.  Anyway – long story short, I was given the cookbook to peruse and try a recipe or two.

I’m thrilled. It has some terrific recipes.  The recipes, the author claims, take you back to the old Italian kitchen table, maintaining the Neapolitan style of cooking.

The following meal was prepared (start to table) within one hour and 15 minutes.  I did not make the marinara sauce.  I had made sauce a couple of months ago so I simply removed it from the freezer and used that sauce for  this dish. 

The Basic Marinara Sauce, on page 93 is so easy and it doesn’t yield a huge amount so you don’t have to worry about freezing or canning.  In the book, it is suggested to use this sauce with any variety of seafood you choose to vary the taste, the “Neapolitan” tastes most pleasing for your family and guests.

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1 small onion, cut into quarters
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 28-oz can Italian style tomatoes, seeded and blended
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Place the oil in a sauté pan.  Add onion and cook until limp – on medium for 8 minutes. Remove onion and discard. Add garlic and brown (1 minute). Remove garlic and discard. Pour tomatoes in the pan and simmer 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until dissolved.  Add sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer 35 minutes with the cover of the pan slightly ajar.

Baked Eggplant Rolls – a mouth watering presentation of eggplant stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 large eggplant
• 3/4 cup Ricotta cheese (I used part skim)
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, diced (I used marinated mozzarella) 
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 – 3 TBS olive oil
• 2 tsp parsley – flat leaf
• white pepper (I used black pepper)
• 2 cups Marinara sauce (from above recipe)
• 1/2 Grated Romano cheese (I used 1/4 cup Asiago and 1/4 Romano)

Peel the eggplant and cut into 1/4 ” slices. 

Salt the slices, put on a plate, cover with paper towel and put another plate on top to compress. Add a weight to the plate and let sit for 20 minutes.  Wash with water and blot dry with paper towel.   Coat eggplant with flour, dip in to beaten eggs 

and fry on both sides until brown – about medium high heat with 1 TBS olive oil per frying batch. Place fried eggplant on paper towel to drain.  Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, parsley, and grated cheese, pepper and salt.

Place 1 TBS of ricotta mix on each slice of eggplant and roll up.  Place seam side down in baking dish.   

Cover with marinara and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes. *I added the asparagus to add a vegetable to our dinner. 

Sautéed Scallops – To top off the above with protein from the sea, I used Sea Scallops. Big, tender, juicy, and sweet.

• 1 lb Sea Scallops – rinse and pat dry …REAL dry
• 2 TBS lemon juice
• 1 TBS olive oil
• Old Bay seasoning
• Salt and pepper

Pour the lemon juice over the scallops and let sit 10 minutes. 

Blot dry. Sprinkle with Old Bay, salt and pepper. 

Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat.  Add scallops when oil is good and hot and cook 3 – 4 minutes per side, until just browned. 

Serve along side of eggplant rolls.

“MANGIA!”

Joanne