Eggplant Rollatini Preparation:

Let’s gather our ingredients and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cut a thin slice off the bottom of your eggplant so you can stand the eggplant straight up without it being wobbly.  Then cut thin strips lengthwise, about 1/8″ thick.  This can be a bit tricky…..if the strips are too thin they will fall apart when you roll them and if they are too thick you won’t be able to roll them.  I used a mandolin to cut my strips because my eggplant was on the “skinny side”. 

There are so many mandolin options out there, I have this mandolin and it has always worked well for me.  The biggest selling point is that it doesn’t have a lip on the bottom so I can slice straight down and not get caught on anything.  If you don’t have a mandolin you can just use a knife and carefully cut thin slices.

Now you have a couple options on how you want to proceed with the eggplant.  I was in a bit of a rush tonight so I moved right on to the filling. 

If you want to remove some of the water from your eggplant you would line a baking sheet with a paper towel. Then lay down a single layer of eggplant, lay down another layer of paper towel, followed by another single layer of eggplant.  Continue alternating layers of eggplant and paper towel until you are left with a layer of paper towel on top.  Place a cookie sheet on top and top with heavy items (books, magazines, cans from your pantry).  Let the eggplant sit in this press for a few hours or overnight.  (This is a must for eggplant parm, but more about that another day!)  Then you can continue with filling right away or baking unfilled first.