Eggplant? Who likes Eggplant?

At my work we have a weekly all-staff lunch meeting, which we refer to as "Friday Lunch".  It's a chance for guests to come visit and meet people who are working on projects of interest, and for staff to share a little bit about their week.  The lunches are catered, and there's a rotation of maybe 6 or so restaurants that we tend to get food from across a range of cuisines.  There are always vegetarian and vegan options, but some are certainly more exciting than others. (Who wants a block of fried tofu?  ...anyone?)

Among the more exciting vegan dishes is one that I never would have thought I would like: Eggplant rollatini.  You see, I'm not an eggplant fan.  It can often have an unpleasant texture, and in and of itself is middling in the flavor department.  But this dish, which consists of a spinach and sun-dried tomato filling rolled in thin slices of eggplant and then covered in tomato sauce and baked, is divine.  So, when I saw that I had eggplant in my CSA this week, I endeavored to recreate the rollatini.  Unfortunately all the recipes I could find for a dish thusly named looked like this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-rollatini/  or this: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/eggplant-rollatini-118235.aspx. And even the vegan version attempts to recreate the cheesiness: http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-eggplant-rollatini-501164.

So I forged out on my own, attempting to recreate the version of rollatini I know and love.  I used my work at home Wednesday to oven roast tomatoes from my CSA for the filling, a technique that I love to use, given my unfortunate aversion to raw tomatoes. Other than that step (which you could do ahead or even substitute store bought sun-dried tomatoes) the recipe comes together pretty quickly.

And the best part - Kevin, who also is not an eggplant fan, gave it a big thumbs up.

Adding the filling and rolling them up

The finished product

Eggplant Rollatini

2 large eggplants, sliced thinly, into 16-20 slices (It would be REALLY hard to do this without a mandolin)

For the filling:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 a yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic minced

4 or 5 large tomatoes, oven roasted, or 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes

3 or 4 cups chopped kale and/or spinach (I used a mix)

2-3 Tbsp crumbled feta (Optional)

1 jar of your preferred tomato sauce (I used TJs brand marinara mixed with leftover rollatini filling)

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly coat the inside of a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.  

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and sauté until translucent and beginning to brown.  Add garlic and sauté another minute.  Add the greens and tomatoes and sauté until softened.

Take each eggplant slice, add 1-2 Tbsp of filling and a small sprinkling of feta and roll the eggplant around the filling.  Repeat with remaining eggplant slices until the dish is full.  Then pour tomato sauce over the top of the rollatini.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 30 minutes.  Uncover, sprinkle with feta (if desired) and bake another 5-10 minutes.