Eggplant Rotolini 

John Gotti's favorite dish was eggplant rollatini, called Rotolini di melanzane in Italy. You can hear him on a video speaking about how much he loved eggplant rollatini while his brother Peter was visiting him in prison in Marion, Illinois in 1998. His daughter Angela Gotti has also said that it was her father's favorite dish. 

Baked eggplant rolls with simple filling are a delicious and easy appetizer with few ingredients. It is a quick recipe that can also be a light and tasty dinner to accompany with fresh bread! Prepare plenty of them, because the rolls are also good cold the next day and therefore also perfect for the picnic basket or for lunch to take to the office. The stringy eggplant rolls are a second dish quick to prepare, delicious and perfect to amaze everyone in the family and make the vegetables eat even the little ones. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

3 oval eggplants 

100 g grated Caciocavallo cheese (or parmesan or mixed)

50 g Breadcrumbs

100 g Tomato pulp

500 ml Tomato puree

Salt to taste

for frying to taste Peanut oil (or EVOO)

Preparation

Cut the eggplants into slices, then put them in a colander and finally sprinkle with salt to lose the vegetation water.  After about an hour, dab them, then fry them in plenty of hot oil. Finally drain and keep aside. Mix together 80 g of grated cheese, breadcrumbs and finely chopped tomato pulp. You can use aged caciocavallo, grana, pecorino or a mix of aged cheeses you prefer. Make a meatball with about 2 tablespoons of filling, then put it in the center of each slice of eggplants, then wrap and form the roll. Place the eggplant rolls in a baking dish, then veil with the tomato puree and finally sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes at 180 °C and finally turn on the grill for the last 5 minutes. Remove from oven the baked eggplant rolls, then let rest 5 minutes and finally serve.