Cheese
Date and feta stuffed eggplant rollatini
- Prep time 20 minutes
- Cook time 1 hour 20 minutes
- Serves 2-3
Author Notes
This comfy and indulgent eggplant casserole is my Middle Eastern riff on the Italian eggplant rollatini. Roasted eggplant slices are filled with a sweet and tangy stuffing made with feta, ricotta, dates, and pine nuts, and then baked in homemade tomato sauce spiced with rosemary, oregano, cumin, and Aleppo pepper. It does have quite a long ingredient list, but they all add up to incredible depth of flavor. If you're short on time, feel free to use store-bought marinara sauce mixed with cumin and Aleppo chili flakes. —Soyeon Park
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Date and feta stuffed eggplants
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2
large eggplants, sliced lengthwise (1 cm-thick)
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Neutral oil, for drizzling
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4 ounces
feta cheese
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2 ounces
ricotta cheese
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1/4 cup
plain yogurt
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1/3 cup
pitted and chopped Medjool dates
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1/3 cup
toasted pine nuts, roughly chopped
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1/4 teaspoon
black pepper
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Grated parmesan, to serve
- Spiced tomato sauce
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2 tablespoons
olive oil
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2
large shallots, finely chopped
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4
cloves garlic, minced
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1 sprig
fresh rosemary
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1/2 tablespoon
fresh oregano
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2 tablespoons
tomato paste
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1 teaspoon
sugar
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1 teaspoon
ground cumin
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1/2 tablespoon
Aleppo chili flakes
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1/3 cup
white wine
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3
large ripe tomatoes, puréed
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F. Salt the eggplant slices and let sit for about 5 minutes. Remove excess moisture using paper towel.
- Drizzle the eggplant slices with oil and a pinch of salt, and bake for about 15 minutes until softened. Cool slightly.
- While the eggplants are baking, make tomato sauce: On a skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and cook shallots, garlic, rosemary, and oregano with a pinch of salt until softened and translucent. Add tomato paste, sugar, cumin, and Aleppo chili flakes and cook for 5 minutes.
- Deglaze the skillet with wine, and stir in puréed tomatoes. Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for about 20 minutes until thickened into a sauce. Pour the sauce into a 2-quart baking dish.
- While the sauce is simmering, combine the feta, ricotta, yogurt, dates, pine nuts, and pepper in a bowl. Add about 2 tbsp of the mixture to one end of the eggplant slices, and roll it up. Nestle the rolls into the sauce, and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and eggplants are slightly browned. Top with grated parmesan to serve.
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