Ricotta stuffed eggplant

This is what this dish looks like when I'm trying to impress you with my healthy restraint.

This is what happens when I put the camera down and think you're not looking. My dusting of Parmesan turns into a snow peak of cheesy goodness because I don't believe there's such a thing as "too much".

Ricotta stuffed eggplant

This is my own recipe which I want to share with those rare souls out there who are always looking for new ways to eat eggplant. I wasn't born loving this relative of bella donna, for me it was a taste acquired in my twenties when my mom wasn't looking. This dish can be made lower in fat than I have here by substituting the regular ricotta with low or nonfat. You can also omit the egg and not use any Parmesan at all. Though you should know that I will secretly write you off as a cretin.

Conversely, you can make it much richer than I've made it here by adding grated jack or mozzarella cheese to the ricotta, or topping the dish with it and letting it get crusty golden. I am trying to learn to love food that doesn't have melted cheese in it though, so my version is what I'm going to record here for you.

Ingredients:
1 large globe type eggplant
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
1 small container ricotta cheese (fresh if you can get it!)
1 large egg
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
salt
pepper


Fire up your grill or your broiler. If grilling, be sure the flames are on a moderate heat or you will burn your eggplant. Cut the eggplant in rounds about 3/8" thick and brush generously with the olive oil on both sides, then dust them with salt and pepper. Cook each side of eggplant rounds until just browned and getting soft, generally I find five minutes on each side generally does the trick. If they have turned to mush you had better make some baba ganoush instead. When the eggplant is done set it aside to cool off.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl dump out the container of ricotta. Add the egg, the nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. (I usually use about 1/8 tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp salt). The nutmeg may seem strange, and if you hate nutmeg just omit it. I learned to put nutmeg in ricotta from my mother who is not one iota Italian but who lived in Rome for two years as a kid and learned to add nutmeg to ricotta from the Italians themselves. I love it this way. You can add up to 1/4 of a tsp nutmeg, but any more than that and it will overpower the whole dish. Mix up the ricotta really well.

Pour about 3/4 cup of marinara sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Take a round of eggplant and in the center of it put about 1 tbsp of ricotta, fold the eggplant ends together to form a roll and place it in the dish. Continue to do this until all your eggplant rounds are used up. You may find the smaller rounds more challenging to roll, instead you can sandwich ricotta between two rounds and place that in the baking dish. The result will ultimately be the same.

When the pan is filled up, add the rest of the marinara to the top of the dish. Cover and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Dump Dust a portion with Parmesan and enjoy!

You know what would be cool? If one of you actually tried to follow this recipe and then tell me how it worked out. Isn't it funny that Diane (in yesterday's comments) was just telling me about lasagna made with eggplant layers instead of noodles? Because I also made that yesterday! Ha, great minds and all other cliches that apply!