"Wow" Factor or Stuffed Eggplant Rolls Baked Under Tomato Sauce (Food and Crafts for All Occasions)

Sometimes, there’s a dish that you’ve been cooking successfully for a while and everybody seemed to love it and then one day you decide to change the recipe just a little, just a tiny bit, and all of a sudden you say, “Wow”, and your guests say, “Wow”, and everybody’s raving about it and asking for the recipe.

I had this situation just recently with my stuffed eggplant rolls in tomato sauce, which I’ve been making for years (top picture). I filled them with a mixture of ricotta and soft goat cheese and baked under a tomato and basil sauce. Kind of an Italian style dish. But then, for one party with a Greek flair (mezze, lamb kebab and such) I decided to alter the recipe slightly to fit the theme. I substituted ricotta with feta cheese, added some chopped dill to the filling and spiced the sauce with cinnamon instead of basil.

Basically, all I’ve changed was spices and as I said here, spices can make wonders to dishes, giving them personality or, like it happened with my eggplants, giving a good old dish a new “wow” factor.

You will need:

4 small Asian (Japanese) eggplants, sliced lengthwise into about 1/8 inch thick slices
About 3 Tbsp vegetable oil for frying

Filling:

¼ lb feta cheese (I prefer Israeli sheep feta from TJ’s)
¼ lb soft goat cheese
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
A pinch of black pepper

Sauce:

1 11oz can tomato puree
¼ large onion, finely chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
A generous pinch of cinnamon
A generous pinch of red hot chili flakes
Salt, to taste
1 tsp chopped parsley
Sugar, to taste, if needed

Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/8 inch slices. In a wide pan (I prefer a griddle), heat about a teaspoon or a bit more oil on a medium high heat. Swirl the pan to distribute the oil evenly over the bottom. Into the pan, place several eggplant slices in one layer and cook on both sides, flipping them with tongs, until golden brown. Transfer cooked eggplants to a plate and sprinkle with salt. Continue with the rest of the eggplants.

Instead of frying, you can choose to broil your eggplants. Brush each slice with olive oil on both sides and broil them about 3 inches under the broil spiral until golden brown. Carefully flip over with tongs and broil on the other side. Transfer the cooked eggplants to a plate, sprinkle with salt and continue broiling the rest.

While the eggplants are cooking, start making the filling and tomato sauce.

For the filling, in a bowl combine together feta, goat cheese, dill, garlic and black pepper and stir well with a fork.

For the sauce, heat oil in a pan and sauté onions until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for another half a minute. Add pureed tomatoes, cinnamon, red pepper flakes and a splash of water and cook the sauce over a low heat for about 7-10 minutes. The sauce consistency should stay the same as tomato puree. If it has reduced too much, thin it with a splash of water. Stir a generous pinch of parsley into the sauce and season it with salt and a bit of sugar if it’s too tart.

Start preheating the oven to 400F. Spread a heaping tablespoon or so of the filling on each eggplant slice and roll pretty tight starting the narrow end.

Spread a bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, arrange the eggplant rolls in one layer on top and cover with the rest of the tomato sauce.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the sauce starts bubbling. Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle with parsley. Let rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.