Eggplant Parmesan Without the Frying from 'Sara's Weeknight Meals'

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Eggplant parmesan is a crowd pleaser, but frying a bunch of slices of eggplant is messy and a hands-on, time-consuming process. Sara Moulton saves you the trouble with this recipe from Sara's Weeknight Meals (available to stream via the PBS app or various times over-air on WTTW). The eggplant is simply baked instead of fried, but you still get a carb to stretch the meal in the form of bread cubes rolled inside the eggplant slices with cheese and garlic, for a sort of inside-out eggplant parmesan, a dish Italians call involtini and Italian Americans call rollatini. (Try Lidia Bastianich's recipe for chicken rollatini.) 

Top it all with marinara sauce either store-bought or quickly made at home with Moulton's recipe (below), and you have a satisfying meal ready to feed a crowd, maybe at a holiday gathering.

Inside-Out Eggplant Parmesan Rolls

Ingredients
2 slices large homemade-style white or whole-wheat bread, crusts discarded and bread cut into 1/4-inch cubes (about 1 3/4 cups)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
2 pounds large eggplant
Olive oil spray
1/2 cup finely chopped roasted red pepper
4 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 1/2 cups Speedy Marinara Sauce (recipe below) or store-bought marinara sauce
Fresh basil for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and adjust the oven racks so there is one in the top third and one in the bottom third of the oven.

2. Toss the bread cubes with the oil and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Spread the cubes in a single layer on a large rimless sheet pan and bake them in the lower third of the oven until they are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer them back to the bowl. 

3. While the cubes are baking, prepare the eggplant. Leaving the skin on, slice it lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, discarding the end pieces that are mostly skin. Spray the baking sheet you used for the bread and a second large rimless sheet pan with the olive oil spray, sprinkle the eggplant slices very lightly with salt on both sides and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheets (you might need to crowd them a little bit—they should just fit on the two sheets). Spray them lightly with more olive oil spray. Bake the slices just until barely golden, 16 to 20 minutes, turning the slices over, and switching the sheet pans’ position in the oven half-way through. Don’t overcook the slices or they won’t be pliable.

4. Add the red pepper, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and garlic to the bread cubes and toss well. 

5. Pour half the tomato sauce into the bottom of a shallow baking pan. Arrange the eggplant slices on a clean kitchen surface, overlapping a few if they are small (to make a wide rectangle). You will need 12 portions total. Divide the filling among the eggplant slices, mounding it in the center of each slice. Roll up the slices to enclose the filling and transfer the rolls, seam sides down, to the baking dish. Spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the rolls and bake the eggplant on the lower shelf of the oven, until the sauce is bubbling. 

6. Transfer 2 rolls to each of 6 plates, making sure that each portion has ample sauce and top with a sprig of basil.

Speedy Marinara Sauce

Ingredients
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Hefty pinch or two of red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes (preferably fire roasted), chopped 
Kosher salt

1. In an unheated medium saucepan combine the garlic and the oil. Turn the heat to medium and cook, turning over the garlic several times, until it is just golden, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and a hefty pinch of salt, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook at a brisk simmer until the sauce is reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, 20 to 25 minutes. Discard the garlic. Season with kosher salt to taste.