Involtini di melanzane is an Italian eggplant oven dish. Translated from Italian, involtini di melanzane means as much as roulade of eggplant. For the filling, we are gonna use a light bulgur stuffing. This vegetarian recipe is inspired by Green Kitchen stories, yet my take on it puts slightly more emphasize on the pistachio nuts.
INGREDIENTS
(3-4 servings)
3 Eggplants
150g Bulgur
2 Cans diced tomatoes
1 Red onion
3 Cloves of garlic
1 Chilli
150g Pistachio nuts
200g Feta cheese
1 Egg
1 Spring onion
Capers
Basil
Oregano
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
PREPARATION
Start by cutting the eggplants into long slices. Put them on an oven tray and cover in olive oil. You can use a brush to distribute the oil evenly. Sprinkle some salt over it and grill in the oven (~210 degrees) for about 20 min or until soft and slightly burned.
In the meantime, we are gonna prepare the tomato sauce. Finely chop the onion, chilli and two cloves of garlic. Heat some olive oil in the pan and fry the mix shortly.
Add the diced tomatoes to the pan and let it simmer for about 20min. Towards the end, give it the final touch by adding freshly chopped basil.
While the tomato sauce simmers on your stove, it's time to prepare your stuffing. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the bulgur for about 10min or whatever the instructions say on the packaging.
Remove the shells from the pistachio nuts and chop them until only crumbles remain. Cut also one clove of garlic, capers, spring onions into little pieces.
Once the bulgur is done, put it in a big bowl and blend it altogether. Also, add some fresh oregano and crumble a good half of your feta into the mix.
Finally, crack an egg into the bowl and give it another good blending so the stuffing becomes a bit stickier.
Take the grilled eggplant slices and put a bit of stuffing at the end. Roll up the eggplant so that a little roulade is formed. Place the eggplant roll in a deep oven pan.
Repeat this process until all your eggplants are rolled and nicely lined up in your oven pan. If there are some leftovers of the filling, add it below and on the sides of the eggplant rolls.
Afterwards, top up the eggplant rolls with your tomato sauce. Lastly, crumble the remaining feta and pistachio nuts over your eggplant rolls to give it a nice finish. To make the topping complete, add a bit of olive oil as well if you dare.
Bake the dish for about 20min in a pre-heated oven with 180 degree. Let it rest for a couple of minutes before serving. You can sprinkle some extra pistachio nuts on top.
Buon appetito!
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