Tag Archives: eggplant

Italian antipasti for an Australian Christmas – eggplant, zucchini and pepper rolls

Posted on December 16, 2012 | 10 Comments

Readers of this blog will know of my love of the Two Greedy Italians and their recipes. As well as being delicious, their simple cooking seems to come straight from the heart. I recently added Antonio Carluccio’s “The Collection”, to my cookbook collection. It was the first cookbook of one or either that I had purchased…..why had I waited so long?! It is a fantastic book with gorgeous photos and lots of Antonio’s quotes ~ I imagine him saying them in his delightfully accented English. The first recipe that I wanted to make was on page 23 – rotolini di melanzane, peperoni e zucchini (aubergine, pepper and courgette rolls). It seemed like the perfect light antipasto for Christmas day lunch.

grilled veg laid out_edited-1

I love this recipe for a summer Christmas for a few reasons – all the vegetables used are fresh and in season; you can make them a few hours in advance (even starting the day before with the preparation of the vegetables) and they look very festive on a platter. You could also choose to make just one type of roll, however when it is a celebration, all three types work beautifully together. I practiced making them this weekend for a friend’s Christmas party. I used an affettatrice (electric slicer) to get the slices of zucchini and eggplant the same thickness. But if you have a steady hand and a sharp knife, you can do almost as good a job without it. If you can find different coloured peppers – yellow, orange and red – they make a great contrast.

landscape platter veg rolls

On Christmas day I plan to serve these antipasti with some Dal Zotto Prosecco to the family, maybe just after we have opened all the presents. A beautiful colorful antipasto before Christmas lunch. Grazie Antonio for the inspiration!

Eggplant, pepper and zucchini rolls
Eggplants
1 large eggplant
olive oil infused with a garlic clove
1 large fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella, cut into batons
handful basil leaves (halved if very large)
salt to taste
Peppers
3 large red/yellow/orange peppers (capsicum)
olive oil
20 anchovy fillets (approximately), sliced in half longways
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Zucchini
2 zucchini, trimmed
olive oil
12 sun-dried tomatoes (approximately), sliced in half longways
handful basil leaves (leaves halved if large)
salt to taste

For the eggplants, slice them about 1-3 mm in thickness and scatter on some salt to allow some of the liquid to be drawn out. After about 30 minutes, pat the slices dry with paper towels and brush them lightly on each side with garlic oil. Roast in a 190 degree oven for around 10 minutes, turning over half way through, watching that they do not burn. Sprinkle salt on the cooked eggplant slices to taste once they have cooled. Place a baton of buffalo mozzarella and a leaf of basil on the edge of each slice of eggplant, roll up and use a toothpick to secure. Repeat with the remaining slices.

eggplant roll

For the zucchini, top and tail then slice the zucchini longways in 2-3 mm slices. Plunge the slices in salted boiling water for 1 or 2 minutes until softened. Drain and run some cold water on them to stop the cooking process. Briefly grill them on a griddle pan to get the lines (not necessary but they do look nicer!). Salt to taste. If you have rather long zucchini as I had, cut each zucchini slice through the middle to make two half slices. Lay half a sundried tomato and a basil leaf on one end of the half slice of zucchini and roll up, securing with a toothpick. Repeat with the remaining slices.

zucchini roll

For the peppers, place them under a grill on medium to high heat. Keep checking and turning them over so that the skin blisters and blackens evenly but they do not burn. Remove from the heat and allow them to cool, removing the charred outer skin. Cut the flesh into rectangles, discarding the stem and seeds. Lay slivers of anchovy and chopped parsley on one end of the pepper. Secure with one or two toothpicks.

pepper roll

Place the different vegetables rolls on a platter ready to serve. You can make these several hours in advance and cover the platter in foil and place in the fridge, removing at least half an hour before serving to allow them to come to room temperature.

selection antipasti square_edited-1
For more of my blog posts that have recipes by the Two Greedy Italians, click on the link to red beetroot gnocchi, panettone zuccotto, or ricotta gnocchi.

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Posted in Antipasti, Summer food, Vegetarian

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Eggplant and potato gnocchi

Posted on May 20, 2012 | 4 Comments

Growing up I often ate potato gnocchi. My mamma made the best potato gnocchi and they were better than the ones that anyone else made. They melted in your mouth. It was always a special occasion when she made them as it was so much work – my sister and I would help by rolling them and curling them on a fork so that they would pick up more sugo when you were eating them. Lately I have been making gnocchi with different ingredients, such as with ricotta and last night I tried to make them with eggplant.

I love the taste of eggplants (also known as aubergine and called melanzane in italian). There are so many different shapes, sizes and colours – purple, black or stripy. They are very wet vegetables – in fact most recipes require that they are salted and drained prior to cooking (to allow the liquid to drain off). In last month’s Gourmet Traveller magazine (the Italian issue), there was a recipe for eggplant and potato gnocchi. It sounded delicious so I had to try – and I was intrigued by the taste and the concept.

I tried to followed the recipe in the magazine but I had to change it to get the consistency right – everything stuck to the bench when I was trying to incorporate the flour. The eggplant was so wet that I needed almost double flour to what the recipe called for. It ended up being a rather messy affair but it was absolutely worth the effort! The gnocchi were deliciously tender with a subtle taste of eggplant that made them a bit more complex than the regular potato ones. Mark and I ate them with burnt butter with crispy sage leaves and shavings of parmigiano. Serve this dish with a good pinot nero (otherwise called Pinot Noir). Buon appetito!

Eggplant and potato gnocchi
serves 4
500g Dutch cream potatoes (2 large)
450g eggplant (1 large)
1 egg
225 – 250g plain flour
50g parmigiano, grated
salt
100g butter, unsalted
sage leaves, handful
Extra parmigiano, shaved, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Cut your eggplant in half lengthways and score the cut surface in a criss-cross pattern. Place on a baking tray with the eggplant cut side up and cook for 40-50 minutes until the flesh is soft and can be scooped away from the skin with a spoon.

Wash the skin of the potatoes and place them in a pot of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on until the potato is cooked (about 40 minutes – test it with a fork). Pass the cooked potatoes through a potato ricer (remove the skin if it is not removed by the ricer) so they are finely mashed. Set the potato aside in a large mixing bowl. When the eggplant is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon out the soft flesh and place it into a strainer. Press the eggplant to remove as much water as you can. There will be some harder bits left from where the top of the eggplant has cooked in the oven – I left this to add a bit of texture. Add the eggplant to the bowl with the potatoes. Wait for the vegetables to cool before proceeding.

Add an egg, the parmigiano and a good pinch of salt to the bowl of mashed cooked vegetables. Add about 100g of the flour to the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it is mixed in. Place half of the remaining flour on your work board (I have a stone kitchen bench so I worked directly on that) and place the vegetable mixture on top of this. Incorporate the flour on the bench into the mixture folding it onto itself. It will still be fairly wet.

Keep adding the flour bit by bit until it is in a large rough ball. Place the ball back into the same bowl. Taste the mixture and adjust for salt. Now you are ready to roll your gnocchi.

Take out a handful of the mixture and place it onto a floured surface. Make long thin rolls about 1 cm wide. Cut the rolls into 1 cm pieces with a sharp knife and place on a floured surface. Repeat with remaining mixture until you have made dozens of tiny gnocchi. Dust with a bit more flour if needed.

To cook, bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the gnocchi one at a time to the boiling water and cook until they rise to the surface (2 or 3 minutes). You will need to cook the quantity of gnocchi in this recipe in two batches or use two pots of water. Remove the cooked gnocchi from the water with a slotted spoon and place on serving plates.

For the burnt sage butter, place the butter in a small frying pan on medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves. Keep swirling the ingredients of the pan around and remove from the heat after the butter starts bubbling and turning slightly brown (4 to 5 minutes). The sage leaves should be crispy by then. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the burnt butter onto the gnocchi making sure the sage leaves are evenly distributed between the plates. Scatter shaved parmigiano.

The gnocchi are all gone

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Posted in Pasta, rice and gnocchi, Vegetarian

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