Newsletter # 45 – Eggplant Cannelloni & Zabaglione

One of this week’s recipes is, by popular demand, Zabaglione, while the other offers an alternate use for the ricotta filling used in last week’s Chicken Roulade and I call it Eggplant Cannelloni.

It definitely has an Italian theme.

The Zabaglione was served on a medley of summer berries, and it was the dessert our cooking group presented at our most recent ‘Dinner with a Twist’, which is a dinner we hold five times a year here at our over 55’s community.

The Ricotta filling of the Eggplant Cannelloni is similar to the Chicken Roulade, and I guess the end product could be classified as a roulade; but cannelloni sounds more appropriate. The origins of the term cannelloni can be traced back the early 1900’s in and around the City of Sorrento just south of Naples, so it is a relative newcomer in the history of pasta. The term cannelloni refers to its literal English meaning – ‘large tubes or reeds’.

For my ‘cannelloni ‘recipe I have replaced the pasta with grilled eggplant and retained the ricotta filling and naturally it is gluten free. I finished the dish in the traditional way, a Napoli sauce. To serve I have re-introduced pasta in the form of Risoni.

Eggplant Cannelloni

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2 large eggplant washed and top trimmed off
• 50 ml olive oil
• seasoning
• 400 g fresh ricotta well drained
• 80 g pine nuts toasted
• parsley washed and chopped
• 1 spring onion washed, trimmed and finely chopped
• ½ tsp garlic
• ½ tsp each - dried basil, dried oregano and dried thyme
• 1 cup risoni pasta
• 50 g butter
• 500 ml Napoli sauce Newsletter # 20
• 200 g grated cheese mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan mix

Method

 

1. Assemble ingredients
   
2. Carefully toast the pine nuts in your oven or air-fryer – around 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
3. Place the ricotta, pine nuts, spring onion, garlic, herbs, parsley and seasoning in a mixing bowl
   
4. Mix these ingredients well, cover and chill
   
5. Slice the eggplant lengthwise about 7mm-8mm thick
   
6. Brush each side of the eggplant slices with olive oil
   
7. In a heated non-stick pan grill the eggplant on both sides. Each batch takes about 5 minutes
   
8. When the eggplant is all grilled, cool to room temperature
   
9. Place ¼ of the eggplant slices on plastic wrap in a single layer
10. On top of the eggplant place ¼ of the ricotta mix, down the centre
    
11. With the help of the plastic wrap, roll the eggplant into a cylinder shape – not too tight
    
12. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap to form the eggplant into a thick sausage shape
    
13. Repeat the process with the other three portions
    
14. Chill for one hour
15. Gently heat the napoli sauce
16. Pre-heat your oven to 175c
17. Prepare the risoni by boiling in salted water
18. Cook the risoni underdone – no more than 6 minutes
19. Drain the risoni, retaining a little of the cooking liquid
20. Mix the butter into the risoni
    
21. In a lightly greased baking/serving dish, pour in the risoni to cover the bottom of the dish
22. Unwrap the eggplant and place them on the top of the risoni
    
23. Mask the cannelloni with Napoli sauce
    
24. Top with grated cheese
    
25. Bake in the oven until the cheese is golden brown
    

Notes

Goats cheese, which is lower in lactose, would be a good alternative to ricotta

Zabaglione

What would we do without eggs? They are an integral part of cookery. From simple, nutritious breakfast dishes to their uses in baking and sauces. A key reason for their success is their ability to emulsify with oil and their aeration qualities.

One of my favourite uses of eggs is custards – crème patisserie and crème anglaise. An even simpler recipe is the Italian custard, zabaglione which requires as little as three ingredients, a fact which should please many of my readers who appreciate brevity. Yes you will note that apart from the berries the zabaglione recipe has three ingredients. This applies when you are using a fortified wine which has alcohol. If you wanted to avoid the alcohol you could make a flavoured sugar syrup and use only two ingredients. Possible flavours for a syrup you could experiment with include ginger, peach, quince and pineapple. I used a de-alcoholised strawberry liqueur and sugar, but regardless of you final choice of flavouring the preparation method is the same.

The classic Zabaglione recipe appears below:

Zabaglione with summer berries:

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: Dessert

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 320 - 400 g mixture of fresh berries – strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries
• 4 - 6 egg yolks 1 -1½ per person
• 60 - 90 ml Marsala or other sweet wine
• ¼ - ⅜ cup caster sugar

Method

 

1. Portion out the berries into individual glasses
   
2. Select a stainless steel or heat proof glass bowl (not plastic)
3. Add the egg yolks, marsala and sugar to the bowl
   
4. Using a whisk mix these ingredients together
5. In a saucepan large enough to suspend the bowl. Bring to the boil one litre of water before dropping the heat to keep the water at a slow simmer.
6. Place the bowl over the water and start whisking. Do not let the bowl come in contact with the simmering water.
7. Continue to whisk. Occasionally scrape the sides of the bowl down with a spatula. Gradually (about 4-5 minutes) the egg mix will thicken and at the same time ‘bulk up’ with air.
   
8. A thickness which can coat the back of a spoon is what you are looking for.
9. Pour the finished Zabaglione evenly over the berries.
   
10. Your choice of garnish on top and serve.
    

Notes

I topped the finished dessert with a combination sponge finger biscuit and ginger nut biscuit crumb.