Eggplant Rollatini

I purchased some great looking eggplant at the local farmers market and found this recipe on allrecipes.com in which to use it! This is a good vegetarian dish without the prosciutto, although I really liked the salty bacon-y flavor that it added to the rolls. This receipe was really easy and delicious!

1 eggplant, peeled and sliced into 1/4" slices

1 egg

1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese

1/2 lb prosciutto, sliced paper thin

14 oz jar spaghetti sauce

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 cup low-fat mozarella cheese, shredded

8 oz spaghetti

olive oil

Sweat eggplant slices by spreading out on a baking tin and salting both sides, then wait 20+ minutes. Eventually the slices will have small beads of liquid on them. Rinse salt off egg plant slices and dry with towel. Sweating the eggplant is supposed to improve the flavor of the eggplant, but I also liked how it made the texture tougher or more meat-like. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Beat egg and dip egg slices in egg then coat with breadcrumbs. Place coated eggplant slices in skillet until golden brown.

Start boiling water for noodles. Preheat oven to 350F. Spread thin layer of ricotta cheese onto each slice of eggplant. Sprinkle a bit of the fresh basil on top of ricotta. Place a slice of prosciutto onto each one. Roll up tightly, and place seam side down in a 9x13" baking dish. Pour spaghetti sauce over eggplant rolls and sprinkle mozarella cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes until cheese is melted. While eggplant is baking, finish cooking noodles.