I’m sure most of you are by now familiar with the Meatless Monday Campaign. The campaign has been around for a long time now, but I feel in the past few years has REALLY taken off.The idea is (at least) once a week, on Mondays, you give up meat. The goal is to help you reduce your meat consumption by 15% in order to improve your personal health and the health of the planet. My husband and I aren’t exactly hardcore carnivores. I’m not sure we could ever be fully vegetarian (or vegan–tried and failed), but try to only eat meat a few times a week, fish at least once a week (though we should eat way more) and stock up on veggies.

From my Tribeca CSA share, we received a bunch of eggplants (four medium to large ones to be exact). Eggplant parm is just so cliche. And it was way too hot for a stew. I wanted something cheesy. Stuffed shells popped into my head, but I wasn’t really feeling the carbs, so figured why not substitute the shells with eggplant? And I went from there. The fun part about creating a dish, is you get to name it. And Eggplant Rollups were born.

Eggplant Rollups (Serves 6-8)

• 2 large eggplants (8″ or longer is better)
• 2 c ricotta cheese
• 80z mozzarella, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheeese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 1/2 c tomato sauce (I ran out so made some quick sauce with diced tomatoes, an onion and garlic)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Cut off top and bottom of eggplant and cut into 1/8″ inch slices using a madoline (careful of your fingers!). You should end up with about 2 dozen slices Mix all other ingredients, except tomato sauce, together in a bowl to create the stuffing. Spread 1/2 c sauce on the bottom of an 8×12 inch baking dish–just enough so the eggplant won’t stick to the bottom. take an individual slice of eggplant, and fill the center with about 2 tablespoons of filling. Fold over front and back off eggplant strip so it forms a coil and hold in place with a toothpick. Place roll-up on baking dish and repeat for rest of eggplant slices. Top finished eggplant roll-ups with remaining sauce and bake for 40 minutes or until eggplant is cooked. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes so cheese filling sets a bit (it will still be a bit runny when serving so be careful). Serve 3-4 roll-ups per person. Tastes even better as leftovers!

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