This recipe features a Pesto and Melanzane Rotolo made with fresh spinach lasagna, homemade basil pesto and grilled Melanzane. There was loads of excitement and inspiration after seeing Jamie Oliver's ROTOLO with butternut and spinach! However, my family is not big on butternut and don't ask me why because I love it so much especially this Oven Roasted Butternut Recipe! Be that as it may, I had to get creative with what we as a family love so you can do the same and it will still be wonderful!
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If you've ever eaten true Italian cooking, be it your in you favorite Italian restaurant or your favorite pasta recipe then you simply must try this rotolo because it's a pasta dish to remember! I am not sure that we could've gone with a better combination than this. The grilled melanzane (eggplant) with fresh homemade basil pesto, mozzarella and parmesan is an absolute Italian food experience! Oh I wish you could taste it, you must make it so let me explain how ridiculously easy it is please.
Before we continue let me say that the images don't do the dish any justice at all. Bad weather that day and bad lighting, what you're gonna do, let's cook and eat friends 🙂
This is an old Italian recipe that is very similar to Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni in terms of the roll ups but perhaps even better who knows! All I know is that it is the most beautiful thing to see those bubbles on the top happening while it's in the oven! There was also no way of getting that flour off from the lasagna sheets but it cooked away in the pot anyway, make sure to leave it it's full 30 minutes and some in the oven. A very quick and delicious basil pesto came to the rescue and the rest was all a whole lot of fun and deliciousness!
PESTO AND melanzane rotolo
What exactly is Rotolo?
You know life has so many curves and interesting turns. I never ever made Rotolo before and the only time I ever saw it was when my mother in law made it but it just looked like such a big job that it seemed impossible to make. Well, I still wont do it the way she did by wrapping it in a cloth and making one large sheet and she used to make it with melanzane and potato. I remember thinking just how foreign it looked to me. Fast forward a lifetime later I come across a Jamie Oliver recipe and he makes it with spinach and Butternut! You know that moment when it hits you and you think 'hold on a minute' there's that recipe! After taking my phone to my husband and forcefully saying look!? The rest, well, is history, here ladies and gentleman I have for you, a pesto and melanzane rotolo, with love. Thank you time, travel, experience, family and Jamie!
FRESH PASTA
Fresh pasta is great here because you need the lasagna sheet to fold the filling in. If you want to use box lasagna you can do that so just take a look at my Spinach & Ricotta version where I explain how you can go about that using a good brand like Barilla no cook lasagna sheets.
Fresh lasagna takes times and patience and although very doable if you're a first timer you need to know a few things and there is a lot of information out there so go with your trusted source.
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PESTO
I thought that the basil pesto went really well in terms of taste and color against the red passatta and the spinach lasagna and it's a no brainer because we all eat pesto thankfully. Buy it or make it that's up to you because you also find some wonderful pesto brands perhaps not very affordable that's why you always have the option to make your own.
MELANZANE
We love melanzane (eggplants) and having them grilled is always nice to get that charred look and lines. You can also use a regular non stick pan just as long as your eggplants are soft so that they can fold into the lasagna sheets that's why we grill them before rolling.
PASSATA
Passata works best in this recipe unless you have cooked canned tomato sauce in the fridge otherwise you're going to have to allow the tomatoes to cook for a while to get a smoother consistency and a less acidic taste. Whereas with the passata, it's easily accessible in just about every grocery store, affordable and oh so quick to cook!
KEY INGREDIENTS
- Pesto
- Lasagna sheets
- Passatta
- Cheese
So what else could work as a filling you may be thinking, let me share some ideas that could work for you;
- think vegetables, my mother in law used to use potato and melanzane
- think meats - chicken, mince
- if you think spinach go with frozen it just makes sense in terms of quantity
more italian recipes
- Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino
- Easy Italian Homemade Pizza Recipe
- Pasta Pronto, Easy Pasta in 7 Minutes and Serves One
- Easy Orecchiette Pasta Recipe
- Authentic Italian Lasagna
- Porchetta Italian Stuffed and Roasted Pork Belly
- Cannelloni in a Beef Mince and Tomato Sauce
- Chiacchiere Italian Pastry
STORING ROTOLO (Left-overs!)
There was simply nothing left over of this dish so I cant tell you 🙂 but we had some left over from the Ricotta & Spinach and I' big on leftovers! Either warm it on the stove or in the microwave but returning that oven proof pan to the oven for a reheat distributes the heat evenly and it warms up evenly. Also this is your opportunity to 're-cheese it' so go for it.
HOW TO MAKE PESTO MELANZANE ROTOLO
- PESTO - Homemade or store-bought, you need some kind of basil pesto
- EGGPLANTS - rinse, cut the hard tops off and discard and then thinly slice
- PASSATA - get the passata on the stove, it only takes a 5 to 10 minutes and then you get the basil leaves in while it's on a simmer
- CHEESE - grate both the mozzerella and the Parmesan cheese
- EGG- have the egg out the fridge
- LASAGNA - lay the lasagna sheets out ready to filled and rolled
I hope that you enjoy and love the recipe but certainly give it a try, fresh lasagna sheets or bought box lasagna either way it's too good to no give it a go!
You can also take a loot at my Instagram for more deliciousness!
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Pesto and Melanzane Rotolo
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
Description
This recipe features a Pesto and Melanzane Rotolo made with fresh spinach lasagna, homemade basil pesto and grilled Melanzane.
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 lasagna sheets
- 3 eggplants (sliced and grilled)
- 250 grams ricotta cheese
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup parmesan
- 2 fresh garlic cloves (finely sliced/minced)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp Calabrese spice - Smell & Taste
- 700 grams Passatta and extra for the top
- 1 ½ cups basil pesto
- fresh basil pesto (handful)
Instructions
- Basil Pesto Recipe
- Calabrese Spice - Smell & Taste
- Heat an oven proof pan/skillet over medium heat.
- Cook the garlic and the Calabrese Spice for a few seconds and as it simmers to golden brown add the tomato passata sauce. Be quick the garlic browns in seconds!
- Simmer the sauce on low heat, add water into the passata bottle, give it a swirl and add that water into the pan, season with a little salt and let the sauce simmer for about 8 minutes. If it gets thick add more water because it will thicken in the oven with the lasagna so you want a bit weak. Add the fresh basil 2 minutes before you turn the heat off. Set the sauce aside. If you want to pour some sauce over the top the rotolo then keep a little aside. You should use about 1 cup of sauce for the top but that's optional. See notes below.
Layering
- Heat the oven to 180 C.
- Starting with the pesto, spread it across each lasagna sheet, followed by one or two (if small) eggplant slices and mozzarella cheese. Roll the lasagna sheet, cut into three parts, and set aside. Repeat for all the sheets and filling. Place the filled and cut rolls into the oven proof skillet or pan, cover the pan with foil to cook for the first 30 minutes. Take it out, remove the foil, add cheese, fresh sage and a drizzle of olive oil on the sage leaves and then return it to bake another 12 minutes until bubbling and gorgeous!Enjoy!
Notes
SAUCE
The recipe calls for one bottle of passatta which is 700 grams however if you want to pour some over the lasagna rotolo after then I would suggest add about a cup more that you can keep aside. One bottle is enough if you're going to go with a thin sauce but if you like a thicker sauce then add about half a bottle and water in the bottle to swirl and top up incase it gets too thick. If there's any over, it keeps very well in the fridge and sauce can be added to just about anything late - pizza sauce, pizza, Tomato and Basil Pesto Toastetc.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
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