As promised, here’s the last recipe I’m sharing from Radically Simple: creamy scallion-bacon grits.  Does that sound irresistible to anyone else?  Because it did to me.  I didn’t grow up eating grits – in fact, good ol’ Cream of Wheat (doused in butter, and with enough sugar sprinkled on top to form a crackly sugar-crust) has been my hot breakfast of choice for most of my life – but grits have been in vogue lately, what with all the attention being given to Southern Food, so I decided to try my hand at them.  And it was so worth it.  Goat cheese + scallions + bacon crumbles + butter + grits + plenty of fresh black pepper?  Too good!

While this was not a healthy breakfast by any stretch of the imagination, goat cheese and scallion filled grits, crispy bacon, sunny side up fried eggs, and freshly brewed espresso is a pretty killer way to start your morning.  Especially if it’s a sunny, Sunday morning in April and you get to cook side-by-side with someone you like a whole lot, stirring the grits while he crisps the bacon, and sneaking the occasional sideways kiss.  If you then happen to get fed roast leg of lamb and chocolate cake by your parents in celebration of Palm Sunday/Passover and sit by the fire drinking red wine, you might just call it a great day.

Hope you all had a great Monday – the hardest day of the week is over!

For those interested, here’s my review of Radically Simple – it’s a great cookbook!

Creamy Scallion Bacon Grits with Runny Eggs

Adapted loosely from Radically Simple.  Serves 2.

• 1/2 c. instant grits
• 2 1/4 c. water
• 2 TBS butter
• 3 oz. grated cheese of your choice (original recipe calls for parmesan, we used goat cheese)
• 4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced
• salt and pepper
• 2 eggs

1. Combine grits, water, and butter in a medium-sized pot and heat over high heat, until it comes to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring constantly, until grits are thick and creamy, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, and stir in cheese, cooked bacon, and scallions.  Season generously with salt and pepper, and set aside.  If you prefer, you can use regular grits, which take longer to cook but may turn out creamier – just follow the cooking instructions on the package, then stir in the cheese, bacon, and scallions.
2. In a large frying pan, fry eggs over low heat until they have reached your desired stage of doneness.  Spoon grits onto 2 plates and top each with a fried egg.  Grind more fresh black pepper on top and enjoy!

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Thyme, small and delicate.  Mint, robust and refreshing.  Sage, soft and lingering.  Rosemary, lavender, parsley, cilantro, basil – summer is a time of herbal abundance.  One of summer’s tiny joys is being able to step out into the garden and snip off a sprig of thyme here, a handful of basil there.  For one, it certainly beats paying $2 per ridiculously tiny package at the store.  More importantly, it allows for constant inspiration in the kitchen, as the summer herbs lend freshness and subtle aroma to everything from salad to bread to cocktails.

Recently, I’ve been trying to incorporate more fresh herbs in my cooking, both to ensure that our herb garden doesn’t go to waste, and to push the boundaries of simple recipes.  Basil in lemon sorbet added a subtle undertone of elegance.  Sage provided a lovely counterpoint to strawberries in these muffins.  And now, fresh pasta gets a delicate makeover with tiny flecks of mint worked in.  Thinking of one of my favorite treats in Prague, sweet pea and mint soup, and a delicious sweet pea and goat cheese ravioli I made with Trevor a few years ago, I combined the two.  And voila, these lovely, subtle, sweet ravioli.  The filling is really delicious – petite peas, cream, mascarpone, goat cheese, and garlic for a hint of bite – and the mint gently enhances the flavors.  Personally, I love making fresh pasta – I find kneading therapeutic and it’s so rewarding when you pull a long, impossibly thin sheet of pasta from the roller.  However, if you’re in a hurry or not feeling up to the homemade pasta thing, these are still worth making with frozen pasta sheets or wonton wrappers – just add a bit of fresh chopped mint to the filling.

Mint Ravioli with Sweet Pea and Goat Cheese Filling

Adapted from here and here.  Makes about 20 ravioli – serves 2 or 3.

• 1 1/4 c. frozen petite pois (baby peas)
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 3 oz. fresh goat cheese
• 2 TBS mascarpone
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 c. fresh mint leaves
• 2/3 c. flour
• pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. olive oil

1. Prepare the filling:  In a medium saucepan, combine the peas, cream, sugar, and garlic.  Bring to a gentle boil, and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes, until peas are tender and warm.  Remove from heat, and process or blend to desired consistency – it’s OK to have large pea pieces if you don’t want your filling smooth, but make sure you fully blend the garlic.  Mix with the mascarpone and goat cheese, and season with salt and pepper.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. Prepare the pasta dough: Bring a small pot of water to a boil.  Blanch the mint leaves – drop in boiling water for 30-60 seconds, and remove with a slotted spoon, transferring directly to a bowl of cold or ice water.  Squeeze water from leaves, and finely chop.  In a small bowl, beat the egg with a pinch of salt and the chopped mint leaves.  Mound the flour on your work surface, making a deep well in the center.  Pour the egg mixture and olive oil into the well.  Working from the outside in, pull the flour into the center with your hands, trying to keep the well from breaking as long as possible.  Then, knead the dough with your hands until it comes together.  Once it comes together, knead for 10 minutes.  It should be beginning to develop elasticity, smooth, and not sticky.  Lightly oil a piece of plastic wrap and wrap the dough in it.  Allow to rest for 45 minutes to an hour.
3. Fill the ravioli: Work the pasta dough into thin, square pieces.  Run through a pasta machine, starting on the largest setting and moving down.  (My pasta machine goes from 7 to 1, with seven being the largest, and I found that the thickness of this dough was best at level 4.)  Place a teaspoon of the filling half an inch from the end of the pasta sheet, and cut the sheet about 2 inches from the end.  Fold the dough over and crimp the edges with your fingers to seal the filling.  This dough was wet enough that I did not need water to seal the edges, but if you are having a tough time crimping, run a wet finger along the edge of the dough before attempting to seal.  Continue until all filling and dough has been used.  If cooking immediately, bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil, and gently lower the ravioli in batches into the water.  Cook for two minutes, and remove with a slotted spoon.  If freezing, lightly dust the ravioli with cornstarch and place flat in a freezer bag.  Press air out of bag, seal, and freeze on a level surface.  Boil straight from freezing.  Serve with melted butter, mint sprigs, lemon zest, and fresh parm.

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I know, I know, we’re closer to graduation than to spring break (ha! can you believe that?!), but I wanted to talk about the final component of my alternative spring break “food and farming” trip – the farming.  To be honest, I signed up for this trip mostly for the food part, and a little bit because I thought it would be nice to spend a few days out in the sun, doing a little honest work.  However, the farming component of this trip left me more inspired than all the scrumptious food and inspiring chefs combined.  Maybe because it’s a newer concept for me than cooking.  Maybe because I’ll never be able to kick that nurturing urge that extends even to tiny green things growing in a shoebox on my windowsill.  Or maybe because I have this hazy, completely idealized, rosy image of myself waking up early to collect eggs and milk the cow, working in the dirt all day, and sleeping the way you only can after a hard day’s work.  Whatever the reason, this trip got me excited.

Over the course of the four day trip we visited three farms and Durham’s community garden, SEEDS.  On Monday we spent the morning at Prodigal Farm, a goat farm run by Kathryn and Dave, ex-New Yorkers who recently decided to follow their dreams back down South.  Kathryn’s story resonated particularly well with me – a Duke graduate and practicing lawyer for 15 years, she gave that world up to live in rural North Carolina with Dave and their goats.  Now she spends her time caring for the goats (who live in an old school bus!), whipping up fresh goat cheese cheesecakes, and restoring the old farm they bought.  Oh, and taking on the Plum Island center for biological warfare research when they wanted to start a mainland operation and chasing them out of Durham, NBD.  While at Prodigal Farm, we ASB-ers played with the goats, who were surprisingly friendly and didn’t try to eat any of my belongings – I guess that’s only the unloved goats at petting zoos – and then spent an hour helping Dave to clear trees.  It’s amazing how much land you can clear in an hour with 20 college kids trying to earn their lunch – I kept thinking about how much my dad would love it.  Then Dave and Kathryn treated us to an incredible lunch of fresh goat cheese, jerusalem artichokes just pulled from the ground, okra pudding and … roasted goat leg.  Which was incredibly tender, delicious, and not at all what I expected.  Yes, it was a little bit odd at first to eat goat while simultaneously watching goats frolic, but after getting over the initial uncomfortableness, it was the coolest experience, being able to actually see the source of each food we were eating.  Inspiration, part one.

Later that afternoon we headed to Four Leaf Farms, where Tim and Helga run the neatest, most organized little operation I’ve ever seen.  On the very small plot of land surrounding their house, they grow enough produce to supply Watt’s Grocery, themselves, and several farmer’s markets, raise chickens, grow mushrooms in the woods, and even have a kiwi tree. (Who knew that kiwis grew in North Carolina?!)  I was amazed with how well they used the little bit of space that they had – I’m not sure I’ve ever been in such a supremely well organized place in my life – and standing in the greenhouse I was a little bit in awe of the rows and rows of green thriving in the middle of March.  More than anything, I think being at Tim and Helga’s gave us all the sense of “Hey, I could do this…”  I don’t think anyone’s dropped out of school to start a farm since break yet, but you never know.

Tuesday morning we spent 2 hours at SEEDS, Durham’s community garden.  SEEDS is a well-established, well-loved piece of Durham culture, where high-school students can work to grow and sell their own produce, younger children can attend day camp, and anyone who would like to can sign-up for their very own plot in which to grow their own vegetables, herbs, and flowers.  While at SEEDS we got some of our energy out digging out the bermuda grass from a new plot [side note: google has revealed to me that Jamaica grass – an energy drink that I’m pretty sure has marijuana in it – is not the same thing as Bermuda grass] and helping to sort the compost.

From SEEDS we headed to the newly established Duke Campus Farm, the reason behind this whole trip.  On 12 acres of old tobacco land in the Duke forest, several Duke students are farming a 1-acre pilot plot, new this year.  Duke dining services has agreed to buy all of the produce, and dreams for the farm are big, but there’s a lot of work that goes into creating a farm-able area before you get to the harvesting part.  On the two days that we were there, we helped build an 8-foot tall deer fence around the plot, hoed the soil into rows, shoveled manure, and finally, as the sun was setting on the last day of the trip, got to plant the first baby lettuces and kales.  I wish that the farm had gotten started when I was a freshman, as it’s something that I’d love to be involved in, but I’m glad that it exists now and I hope that it succeeds.

Since all this farming business ended, I’ve been a little bit obsessed.  The night after going to Tim and Helga’s farm I went to Kroger and got three packs of seeds and a bag of potting soil.  I now have four sage plants, four lettuce plants, and four basil plants that I am absurdly happy about.  Sometimes Megan finds me sitting on the windowsill in the morning, literally just watching the plants, and she has to remind me how weird I am.  I’ve also been devouring books like “The Dirty Life,” and one of my classmates caught me looking up how to grow asparagus in the middle of class, at which point he had to remind me that I am, in fact, a 21 year old college student and not yet a farmer.

To go along with all this springtime greenery, farm-ness, and inspiration, I baked these pea, pancetta and chevre tartlets, inspired by a recipe I’ve been eyeing in Sarah Banbery’s “Tarts,” for over a year now.  The fresh peas are the essence of spring, the goat cheese brought me back to lunch at Prodigal Farm, and the pancetta… well, pancetta just makes everything better.  These were delicious – light and creamy filling with bites of salty pancetta and sweet peas, and a flaky crust flecked with parmesan.  A little indulgent, but one or two makes a perfect Saturday afternoon lunch.

Pea, Pancetta, and Chevre Tartlets

Inspired by Tarts.  Makes 4 tartlets.

For the crust (makes enough for 6-7 tartlets, freeze extras)

• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 5 TBS cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 c. finely grated parmesan cheese, packed
• 2-3 TBS very cold water

For the filling

• 1/2 c. fresh peas, from 1/2 lb. peapods
• 1 TBS butter
• 2 shallots, peeled and finely diced
• 3 oz. pancetta, cubed
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh basil
• 3 oz. goat cheese
• 4 egg yolks
• pepper to taste

1. Grease four 3″ tartlet pans (I used pam and the tarts came out really easily).  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt.  Cut in cold butter, using a fork or pastry cutter to mash mixture until a crumbly dough is formed.  Add parmesan cheese, mix to combine.  Add water a tablespoon at a time, stirring between additions, until dough just comes together.  Set bowl in freezer for 5 minutes to firm up.
2. Divide dough into 6 or 7 equally sized lumps.  Stick the extra two or 3 into the freezer for next time!  Or make double the filling.  On a floured surface, roll out into a circle, and press into tartlet pans. Trim excess dough from edges, crimping as you go.  Put tartlet pans in freezer for 5 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400°F.
3. Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil.  Add peas and cook for two minutes, until bright green and just tender, then drain and rinse under cold water.  Set aside.
4. Remove tartlet pans from freezer, and place on a baking tray.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit inside each tartlet pan, and cover with pie beans or rice to keep the crust from bubbling.  Blind bake the crust for 8 minutes.
5. In a medium frying pan, melt the tablespoon of butter over medium heat.  Add the shallots and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the pancetta and cook until brown all over and shallots are caramelized, about 5 minutes more.  Add peas to warm for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat.
6. In a medium bowl, mix together egg yolks, goat cheese, and minced basil until smooth.  Add pea-pancetta-shallot mixture and season with pepper.  Divide filling evenly among four tarts, and bake for 12 minutes, until set.  Serve warm.

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Remember when I competed (and won 2nd place!) in Duke’s Iron Chef competition and got a fancy pasta machine and went on and on about how I was gonna use it all the time?  Well, if your definition of all the time is approximately once every two months, then I guess you could say I was telling the truth.  And even if I don’t frequently have the opportunity to spend a few luxurious hours rolling out pasta dough, I do really enjoy it when I get the chance.  Kneading, stretching, cranking, folding, and re-cranking the dough is just an activity that really focuses me.  When Trevor and I went to the pasta class with Terrence, we used a food processor to mix and a KitchenAid to roll out the dough, but, while efficient, it really wasn’t the same.  Maybe it’s just that I’m so entranced by the idea of moving to Italy and living in a Tuscan farmhouse and growing my own perfect tomatoes and walking barefoot across the stone floors while singing (in Italian of course) and kneading pasta dough that I feel like practicing the kneading part now will leave me in good stead when I inherit an Italian estate.  Or maybe I was an Italian grandmother in a past life.  Or maybe I’m just trying to snag an Italian lover.  Who knows?

In any case, last weekend Trevor visited and it was a completely rejuvenating 3 days.  It was sunny and 70 degrees every day, I pushed aside all thoughts of work, I slept more than 8 hours each night, we went mushroom picking in the Duke Forest with Justin and Clark, Trevor made his debut at shooters… all in all, pretty good stuff.  And of course, we had to play around in the kitchen just a little bit.  What better to occupy a few hours in the kitchen than fresh pasta?

Ever since I had been totally awed by the beautiful color of these beet ravioli they had been in the back of my mind, so I decided to go for it.  They were incredible!  While the beets made the dough a bit more challenging to work with than an egg-based dough, they also lent a wonderful tenderness to the finished pasta.  Stuffed with a goat cheese, ricotta, and parmesan filling that melted out of the ravioli with every bite, they were a total win.  Last weekend we simply served them with some caramelized onions, a bit of melted butter, and grated parmesan cheese, and this weekend, for round 2, I mixed up a blood-orange and fennel butter sauce, based on a combination in The Flavor Bible.  Neither sauce was perfect, although I think I enjoyed the simple crunchy-sweetness of the onions more.  However, the blood orange sauce definitely won out in terms of sophistication and presentation.  If you try either preparation or think of something new, definitely let me know.  Either way, if you feel like spending a little time working with your hands and/or pretending your a five year old with the largest, tastiest quantity of purple play-dough you’ve ever encountered, definitely try this recipe.

Don’t forget to vote for my entry in Marx Food‘s Ridiculously Delicious Challenge, March 1st – March 4th!

Beet and Chevre Ravioli in a Blood-Orange and Fennel Sauce

Beet ravioli recipe adapted from Martha Stewart via Madeline’s Adaptations. Three beets makes about 2 pounds of pasta, probably enough for 80-100 ravioli.  Extra dough can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap, for several months.

For the ravioli:

• 3 beets
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 5-8 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt

For the filling (makes enough for 3-4 servings of ravioli):

• 1/3 c. ricotta cheese
• 1/3 c. goat cheese
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper to taste

For the Blood-Orange and Fennel Sauce (makes enough for 3-4 servings of ravioli):

• 3 TBS butter
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground (can leave whole if desired)
• juice of 1-2 medium blood oranges
• zest of 1 blood orange

For the pasta dough:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Chop off beet greens, wash beets, and wrap in foil.  Roast in foil for 45 minutes to 1 hour (beets should be tender).  Allow to cool enough to handle, then peel off skin, and puree beets in blender.
2. Mix beet puree, eggs, olive oil, and salt in a large bowl.  Add 3 cups of flour, and incorporate fully with a wooden spoon.  Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, kneading by hand between additions, until the dough is elastic, does not stick to hands, and has been kneaded for at least ten minutes.  I ended up using about 8 cups of flour to balance the amount of liquid that 3 beets added to the dough.
3. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes.  Roll out using a pasta machine, or with a rolling pin as thinly as possible.

For the filling and ravioli:

1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.  Season to taste.  Place a teaspoon of filling inside a 3 inch square of pasta dough.  Fold one edge over and seal edges, pressing together firmly with fingers.  Trim with a ravioli cutter for presentation.  Boil ravioli for 2-3 minutes in a gently boiling, salted pot of water.

For the sauce:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan until beginning to foam.  Add fennel and sautee until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add blood orange juice and reduce to desired consistency.  Season with salt as necessary.  Serve over ravioli; top with blood orange zest.
   

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So the beginning of November did not go so hot for me – I unexpectedly got a staph infection that was complicated by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic they put me on.  It took 12 days, 3 doctor’s visits, and 5 prescriptions for me to start getting better.  And in the meantime I had to take 3 midterms with kind of disgusting, fully bandaged right hand, and continue to go to class and to work and do my dishes and I didn’t have anyone to take care of me.  And then on top of that they canceled tailgate, but that’s a story for another day.  Basically, it was exceedingly frustrating.  However, thanks to a beautiful thing called steroids, I’ve finally regained use of my hand/feel like a normal, non-disfigured human being again.  And now, if you notice me looking particularly jacked in the next 3 weeks or winning the Feaster Five, you’ll understand why.

Needless to say, cooking/blogging was not really a priority when the average amount of time it took me to do everything had doubled.  However, one night last weekend I did find this incredible recipe, that I’m crediting in part for Sunday being the turn-around point of my recovery.  Having made several trips to Rite-Aid in the recent past, which happened to necessitate 15 minutes of standing around in the aisles, and additionally happened to coincide with the week after Halloween, my cupboard had somehow been filled with a large amount of half-price off-brand halloween candy.  Saturday afternoon I found myself mindlessly eating peppermint patties one after the other, and my thought process after realizing what I was doing went something like this: Man, this is probably not helping my body do it’s thing.  But I can’t use my hand to do much beyond stir, and I can’t wash anything that won’t go in the dishwasher.  And I really just want some cheesy pasta.  But that has no nutritional value either.  And I really should use up all those vegetables I bought in the hope that consumer guilt would force me to eat them.  I’m going to stop thinking about this and mindlessly browse the internet like I’ve been doing all day.  Oh, what Heidi of 101 cookbooks, you just made a meal that requires all of one pot and one dishwasher safe blender that was a sauce of blanched kale and goat cheese served over whole wheat pasta?  Does that not fill exactly all of the requirements that I just mentioned?  Are you an angel?

Keep in mind that I was not searching for recipes that used kale, or that were simple, or that involved cheese and pasta.  I literally just clicked the little 101 cookbooks button on my sidebar and BAM.  Serendipity.  I made it immediately, ate it immediately, and loved it a lot.  Since I’m pretty sure kale has magical properties it’s so nutritious, I decided that the fact that I woke up feeling about 150% better Sunday morning had to be attributed in part to that sauce, which I’m passing on to you all, with a few revisions: the original recipe called for olive oil, but I thought it drowned out the freshness of the kale, so I omitted it this time.  I also think this would be really stellar/even more healthifying with a little bit of ginger in it for kick, so I plan on trying that soon… In the meantime, all hail kale.

Creamy Chevre and Kale Pasta

Adapted slightly from 101 Cookbooks. Serves 2-3.

• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/2 large bunch of fresh kale, washed, stemmed, and very roughly chopped
• 3 oz. goat cheese
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 box rotini

1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.  Add garlic cloves and boil for 2-3 minutes.  Add kale and blanch for 15 seconds (don’t overcook!) then remove kale and garlic to a blender with a slotted spoon.  Reserve blanching water.
2. Add goat cheese, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes to blender.  Add 1/2 c. of blanching water.  Blend.  Add more water until consistency is as desired.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Return blanching water to a boil.  Add rotini and cook according to package  directions.  Drain, mix with sauce.  Serve warm, sprinkled with more goat cheese.

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In July, the Belmont gym was remodeled.  This caused little to no excitement for me.  Then Megan came home from her inaugural use of the facility and announced that every single machine has a built-in TV.  Excitement levels have spiked.  Motivation is rampant.

So, the next morning, I happily made my way to the gym, climbed on a treadmill, and proceeded to simultaneously exercise and watch a history channel special on ancient alien encounters.  Yes, I still had to move in order to burn calories.  Yes, I still sweated.  So you could say the system isn’t perfect.  But, while moving and sweating I learned that Noah, of Ark infamy, was actually the product of an alien genetic experiment to purify the human race, and was conceived through artificial insemination.  It says so in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  And the Ark itself?  An alien DNA bank.  Duh.

This gym experience was life-changing for me.  Who knew you could be enriched on so many levels by a simple machine?  So, while I generally detest the gym because it makes a run seem about 4 times longer than it would outside, the temptation of more episodes of ANCIENT ALIENS may keep me coming back, at least while it’s still too hot to run outside at any time other than 5 am.  Rah rah treadmill.

In the spirit of all this exercise, I was going to offer you a cake.  To be specific, a chocolate cake with toffee mousse, chocolate ganache, and toffee bits.  But then I realized I didn’t actually have all of the things I needed to make this sinful and completely inappropriate for my diet/a post about the gym dessert.  What I did have was some getting-mushy-in-the-fridge-I’ve-been-saying-I’ll-use-them-for-five-days-in-a-row-now eggplant and tomatoes.  So we’re going the healthy route.  Maybe I’ll still make that cake sometime.  But in the meantime, I’m getting skinny and eating vegetables.  Stuffed with cheese.  Just to be contrary.

I’m not sure why I put making this off for so long – it ended up being super quick and easy to throw together, even including making my own fresh tomato sauce.  With bottled sauce it would be a 30 minute dinner, with about 10 minutes or less of active time.  On top of that, it’s fairly healthy (see bottom for nutritional analysis), yummy, and comforting.  All in all a solid weeknight dinner.

Eggplant Cannelloni

Serves 4, Inspired by SELF

• 1 medium eggplant
• cooking spray
• 6 oz. goat cheese
• 8 oz. whole milk ricotta
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 c. fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 recipe fresh tomato sauce from Chez Pim, or bottled sauce of your choice

1. Remove stem and 1 inch of bottom from eggplant.  Slice lengthwise and soak for 15 minutes in heavily salted cold water.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together cheeses, garlic, lemon juice, and parsley.
3. Spray both sides of eggplant slices with cooking spray, or brush with olive oil.  Lay flat on a baking sheet and broil for 7 minutes per side, or until golden brown.  Remove eggplant from oven, turn temperature down to 400°F.  Place 2 tablespoons cheese filling on the bottom third of each eggplant slice.  Using tongs, roll to third and middle of eggplant slice over cheese filling to form your cannelloni.  Bake eggplant cannelloni for 10 minutes.
4. While eggplant is baking, prepare Pim’s Fresh Tomato Sauce or heat up bottled sauce of your choice.
5. Serve eggplant with tomato sauce and additional fresh parsley on top.

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Nutritional Analysis: (Estimated using SparkPeople’s recipe calculator):

340 calories per serving (based on  four servings using the linked tomato sauce recipe); 22.9 g fat, 5.4 g fiber, 17.4 g protein.

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