Aubergine (Eggplant) Rollatini

Ingredients

1 large aubergine / eggplant

Mixture.
1 250g tub of Ricotta cheese

1 handful of large grated white cheese. To be authentic it would be mozzarella. I used Cornish Cove from M&S. Optional another handful of finely grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese (which I forgot to add)

1 handful of chopped parsley

2 finely chopped spring onions

another handful of large grated white cheese for the topping at the end of cooking.

Tomato Sauce:-

1 carton of passata sauce Or 1 can of tomatoes

1/2 onion chopped

1 small garlic clove chopped

A handful of basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano.
1/2 teaspoon of chopped chilli

Sweat off the onion garlic, chilli in a little olive oil, add the passata and basil/oregano and simmer for 10 minutes.

Blend with a hand blender until smooth.

Method

Heat the oven to 200c

Top and tail the aubergine and slice into 4mm slices (longways) I needed 10 slices.

Wipe 2 trays with a little olive oil to stop sticking. Then lay the aubergine slice on the trays. Put in the oven for 3 or 4 minutes to soften the aubergine for rolling. Transfer the slices to another board to cool.

Mix the ricotta, white cheese and spring onion together in a bowl.

Assembly

Spoon out a few spoonfuls of the tomato sauce into an oven dish to cover the base. Place a tablespoon of the ricotta mixture on each slice of aubergine and roll up and put in the dish. Then spoon more tomato sauce over the rolls and put in the oven at 200c for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes cooking spread the handful of white cheese over each roll and return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese melts.

An excellent starter with 2 aubergine rolls or 3 or 4 as a main dish.