I shared my fantastic experience catering the Padre Pio dinner last Saturday in Montclair and talked about all the dishes we prepared. Now, I will share some food pics and the easy recipes we used to prepare them!

We did meatballs, macaroni and eggplant—definite classic family style foods every paisan grew up on. You should all know the rundown of my meatballs by now, so I’ll highlite the macaroni and eggplant dishes.

First up is Eggplant Rollatine with Spinach & Ricotta. As I’ve stated in the past, I recommend using fresh eggplants from the farmers market if you don’t grow them yourself. Get started by skinning, peeling and slicing them—but not into rounds—for this dish we need them in wide cutlets because we are going to be filling and rolling them. Once they are cut, soak them in ice water to remove any bitterness.

Dredge in flour, egg and unseasoned breadcrumbs and then pan fry in olive oil. In the meantime, get your sauce and filling mixture going. I made two different variations of this dish: one tray was with the Sunday Gravy which I had a lot of from all the meatballs we rolled, and one tray was with a cheesy white cream sauce. Here’s how that sauce is done…

Do a roux (flour + melted butter whisked together), and next begin pouring in heavy cream. Add some cracked pepper and just a little bit of nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and then turn down the flame and start sprinkling in shredded mozzarella, shredded provolone, some grated Pecorino-Romano and a few spoons of ricotta. Keep on a simmer and then ladle some onto the bottom of the tray where the eggplant will be placed.

For the filling mixture, combine ricotta and chopped frozen spinach (which has been thawed-out and drained), some minced garlic, shredded mozzarella, grated Pecorino-Romano, and JM’s Special 10-Spice Blend (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, red chili flakes). Stir everything up real well with a spoon, or your hands if you want. Just remember if you take the latter route to take off your jewelry. I’m a cugine who wears a lot of gold, so I always make sure I de-bling in the kitchen. Nobody wants to find a pinkie ring in their pasta.

Once all the eggplant cutlers are cool to the touch, fill the center with about 2-3 spoonfuls of the mixture and roll! Place them with the seam down, put as many as you can in the tray (it’s okay if they are touching each other) and ladle some more sauce all over the top along with a sprinkling of cheese and a dash more of Special 10-Spice across the top. Bake in the oven for about a twenty minutes at 300 degrees.

One final touch is to take another ladle of the cream sauce and just add one tablespoon of tomato sauce (or gravy) into it. You will then get a pink hued color which you can drizzle across the tray. It looks real cool as you can see from the photo!

For the macaroni course, we did baked rigatoni. This is my favorite cut to use for a baked pasta. To me, it just holds up better than ziti, it does not get mooshad, especially if you make sure it’s parboiled correctly. The trick is getting the rigatoni to pre-aldente, a little on the firmer side. Once you have this step done, simply strain and pour the pasta into your tray, stir in some ricotta, mozzarella and sauce…then top with more sauce, more shredded mozzarella and bake for a half hour.


The hit of the meal was a second baked rigatoni I made which incorporated elements from the eggplant rollatine and also my meatballs. It doesn’t really have a name, it was sort of a “rigatoni lasagna.” What I mean by that is it was layered and made like a lasagna—only using macaroni and not lasagna sheets.

Basically what I did was I ladled a layer of the white cream sauce down first, poured in the pasta, then poured in some of the leftover chopped spinach and ricotta filling and followed that with crumbled-up meatballs in Sunday Gravy. Then, I repeated the steps and finished the tray by melting shredded mozzarella and slices of provolone on top. This was a meaty, cheesy, spinachy delight! Hey, maybe that can be the name of the dish?

I was very pleased with the way all the food turned out and everyone else seemed to be as well. The Carlo Rossi Paisano paired well with everything. I’m a big fan of Rossi, give me the old-school jugs over any of the high-end top shelf stuff out there. I’ll close this blog out with the same way I close out a long day or a great meal…with a Parodi cigar and a nice glass of peaches & wine. My favorite is Sweet Red. If you never had it, give it a try. And give these recipes a try too! Or just call me…


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Upcoming
This Thursday night, I’ll be making my second visit to The Carlucci Radio Show, recorded live from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting Studios in Hasbrouck Heights. You can listen in from 6pm-9pm at www.thecarluccishow.com. My wife Megin will be also be coming on the show with me—here’s your chance to get a peak into the lives of the Meatball King & Queen!