Meatless Monday - Eggplant Manicotti

Yeah, this is our dinner table on Sunday night.
We're fancy like that.
Real cloth napkins.
Placemats, wine glasses, salad plates.
Guess what we're wearing?

In the last 3 years we have made it a habit of sitting down to dinner with all the fancy stuff on Sunday. Last Sunday we sat down to Eggplant Manicotti, pear salad, a bottle of Texas red wine (not the best) and garlic bread.

I'm pretty invested in the notion that families should sit down to dinner together at least one day a week. I know that makes me a freak. It wasn't always this way. As the boys grew up and moved away then moved closer this one day a week became more important.

When we all lived in the same city (Phoenix); we all sat down to dinner on Sunday. Now, we are in different cities it makes it impossible to get together. JR and I still sit down to dinner on Sunday. Later, after we've eaten, we set the laptop up and try to chat with the kids using Skype. Almost but not quite the same. Someday, we can be together every Sunday again.

This weekly event is not possible for everyone. I totally understand how hard this is when you have Junior high, high school or college age children. Thank God that technology has made this dinner/weekly event easier for everyone. I miss my boys and Val too much to let this go.

Here is the recipe for the family dinner we would have had had the kids been here. JR and I enjoyed it without them. I'm pretty sure they would have liked it.

We ate the leftovers during the week and they just got better and better.

Eggplant Manicotti
Makes 4 servings

for the filling
1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves
½ cup loosely packed spinach
1 tablespoon pine nut, toasted
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the manicotti
1 eggplant, cut lengthwise into ¼ inch‐thick slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups purchased or homemade pasta sauce
½ cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
1. To prepare the filling, puree all the filling ingredients in a food processor, refrigerate until ready to use.

2. If desired, salt the eggplant slices and let sit 30 minutes. Rinse, drain, and blot dry

3. Preheat the broiler. Lightly oil a baking sheet; arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on the sheet and brush them with more oil. Broil the eggplant 2 to 3 inches from the heat until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread about 1/2 cup tomato sauce in a 9 by 12 inch baking dish. Place 1 to 2 tablespoons ricotta filling in the center of each eggplant slice; roll up. Arrange the rolls in the baking dish, seam side down. Top the rolls with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the mozzarella. Bake for 45 minutes or until the eggplant is tender and heated through.


Above is the official recipe from the Vegetarian Times Cooks
Mediterranean cookbook that I scored for $10. The following is the way I made it.


My way is easier and used items I had on-hand. I have a rule about using only ingredients that I have on-hand. Nothing pisses me off more than food shows/blogs/cookbooks that expect you to have esoteric ingredients in your pantry. Really, who has saffron/stone-ground corn meal/gatam masala just hanging around your kitchen? We are not all Iron Chefs.


Michele's Eggplant Manicotti

Filling
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup prepared basil pesto
1 ½ cup loosely packed spinach

Manicotti
1 eggplant, cut lengthwise into ¼ inch thick slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups purchased sauce
½ cup onion, diced
½ cup mushrooms, chopped
1 cup fresh mozzarella, chopped or sliced

1. To prepare the filling, puree all the filling ingredients in a food processor, refrigerate until ready to use. Do yourself a favor and make this ahead.

2. Salt the eggplant slices and let sit 30 minutes. Rinse, drain, and blot dry

3. Preheat the broiler. Lightly oil a baking sheet; arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on the sheet and brush them with more oil. Broil the eggplant 2 to 3 inches from the heat until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Want to save some fat? Use that non-stick spray stuff.

4. Sauté onions and mushrooms then add to tomato sauce.

5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread about 1/2 cup tomato sauce in a 9 by 12 inch baking dish. Place 1 to 2 tablespoons ricotta filling in the center of each eggplant slice; roll up. Arrange the rolls in the baking dish, seam side down. Top the rolls with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the mozzarella. Bake for 45 minutes or until the eggplant is tender and heated through.

It rocked as a Sunday night dinner and it rocked as leftovers for lunch. It wasn't too hard to make and it used on-hand type ingredients. Which makes it a lazy-ass dish. Sounds perfect doesn't it?

Love,
M

PS. I'll be having a give away on Tuesday. I'm feeling pretty smug about my kiddie pool garden so in order to temper my enormous pompousness I'm going to give away 3 herb garden kits. Stuff that you can grow indoors for those of you who see winter coming at you like a bullet. Then I'll feature recipes that will enable you to use you new found gains. Yeah, I'm generous like that.

PSS. Another of my recipes made the Meatless Monday Blog again. They liked the Nacho Soup recipe. I feel pretty special right now. It doesn't take much does it?