Gluten Free Eggplant Rollatini at Page Hardware!

This Eggplant rollatini recipe that I demoed at Page Hardware is the BEST recipe out there! It’s light and luscious all at the same time! Like anything in life you have to be able to evolve with the times and that’s what has happened here with my gluten-free recipe. I swap out the all-purpose wheat flour for rice flour and instead of a bread crumb coating the eggplant slices are dredged in rice flour, dipped in egg and then fried. This makes for a lighter eggplant with a soft, silky texture!

 

As always, it’s so much fun at the Page Hardware food demo’s. We had a large crowd this past weekend who were very attentive and excited to sample my eggplant rollatini. There weren’t any left overs! We had regulars at the demo and some new faces too. Page is having a huge red-tag sale with 75% off so we all went into the store before the demo began to see some of the great deals. Every 3rd Saturday of the month, from 12-2,  you can come and sample  delicious foods at Page Hardware while I demo how they’re made. There is a Traveling Epicurean calendar on the home-page side bar of this website so you won’t miss out on up and coming events. See you next on Saturday, 16th of March!

I used to watch my mother fry eggplant when I was little and have been frying eggplant now for over 30 years. Eggplant rollatini is one of those delicious Italian comfort foods and is always better the next day when re-heated.  It is a little bit of a process but if you just organize yourself like I’ve shown you in the photo’s below you’ll get it down to a science.

You should try to fry up at least 2 large eggplants. I like to cook 3 eggplants because I freeze the ones I don’t use. I layer the fried eggplant slices in between durable Bounty paper towels and place into the freezer in Ziploc baggies. This way all your base work is done and now you’re able to pull them out of the freezer and make eggplant rollatini, eggplant Parmesan, or eggplant lasagna in no time at all.

I recommend making my slow cooked pasta sauce to go with the eggplant rollatini which can totally be made days ahead as well. I’m very picky about my ricotta cheese so Liuzzi Chesse in Hamden is the only way to go for the ricotta. There are some Shoreline stores that carry Liuzzi products like Bishop Orchard in Guilford or Saldamarco’s 

If you love eggplant as much as I do you really need to check out Eggplant Balls, Paleo Eggplant Lasagna, and Pickled Eggplant. Then you might be moving on to your satisfy a sweet tooth with “Death by Chocolate Meringue Pie” and another that shouldn’t go unnoticed is Chocolate Pecan Pie! Enjoy! 🙂

 

INGREDIENTS:

• Slow cooked pasta 101 recipe on my website
• 2 lb. Whole milk Ricotta “Fina Style” Liuzzi Cheeses, North Haven,CT
• 2-3 large eggplants
• 9 extra large eggs whisked
• ½ cup grated Reggiano cheese
• 1 cup Rice Flour
• Salt and Pepper
• Mozzarella block cut into 1/4″ slices
• 3 1/2 cups canola oil for frying
• 1 whole roll of Bounty Paper Towels (it’s important to use quality paper towels)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Slice the ends off the eggplants
2. Using a potato peeler peel off all the skin of the eggplants
3. Slice up eggplants length wise into 1/4″ slices
4. Layer the eggplant slices in a large glass bowl
5. In between each layer sprinkle 1/4 Tsp of salt, and keep layering eggplant, salt, eggplant, salt…
6. Cover with Saran wrap and place a small plate on top and then some heavy fry pans or large tomato can to weight down the eggplant and into the frig for 2 hours up to 1 day
7. Drain the purple juice from the bowl
8. Take the eggplant and pat them dry in layers between Bounty paper towels
9. Whisk eggs and add ½ cup of grated Reggiano cheese
10. Get your line-up of bowls in order: eggplant slices – rice flour – whisked eggs
11. Add 3 1/2 cups canola oil to a large sauce pan and begin to heat up on medium/high heat
12. The oil needs to be around 350º
13. Lay out 2-3 cookie racks covered with layers of paper towels to absorb oil for frying
14. Add slices of eggplant to the rice flour then dip into the egg bowl in batches
15. Put 4 slices eggplant of egg dipped eggplant into the oil at a time…
16. They will fry for about 2-3 minutes per side til golden then flip the slice over
17. While the 1st batch is frying get the 2nd batch ready to fry dusting in the rice flour then dipping into the egg and have them sit briefly until they are ready to go into the oil
18. Once the eggplant are golden place onto cookie racks with paper towels and dab them with fresh paper towels, flip and do the same to the other side to remove all excess oil
19. Re-place with a new set of paper towels for the next batch and replace with each batch there after
20. Then place the eggplant onto the wire cookie racks without paper towels to cool immediately after
21. Finish frying the rest of the eggplant going thru the same procedures
22. Get out your favorite baking dish and cover the bottom with sauce
23. On a cutting board lay 1 slice of honey ham on top of a fried eggplant slice, & add a dollop ricotta (1/4 cup)
24. Place a 1/4″ slice of mozzarella onto ricotta and roll up
25. Place the rollatini into baking dish and repeat with the remaining eggplant slices
26. You should allow for about 3″ room for each rollatini (they expand when they are baked)
27. When you baking dish is full top with more pasta sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and cover with foil
28. At this point you can either put into the frig until you are ready to bake them or put them into a pre-heated oven at 350º for 55 minutes and then remove foil and 5 minutes more in the oven
29. OPTIONAL: Remove the foil and add a sprinkle of grated mozzarella and pop the baking dish back into the oven for an additional 8 minutes
30. Take out let sit for 15 minutes and serve!