Rick's Favorite: Italian Eggplant Involtini

This blog has published 36 of the 37 recipes found in the Rick Podowski and The Hefty Trio series.  It's now time to go look at one of Rick's favorites. Italian Eggplant Involtini contains thin spaghetti and ricotta cheese rolled inside of a grilled eggplant slice topped with marinara sauce and smoked mozzarella cheese. A glass of Odonata Malbec is the perfect accompaniment for this dish.

   

Italian Eggplant Involtini 

2 eggplants (1 pound each)

olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 cups of marinara sauce

1/2 pound of thin spaghetti

20 fresh basil leaves, chopped

8 ounces ricotta cheese

1/2 pound of smoked mozzarella cheese

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 3/8-inch thick slices. You should get 8 slices from each eggplant. Brush some olive oil on the eggplant slices and place under the broiler for 4-5 minutes per side.

Bring the water for the pasta to a boil, add salt to taste, and cook the pasta until al dente. When the pasta is ready, drain, and toss with half of the tomato sauce and half of chopped basil, stirring until the pasta is well coated. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce. Put a slice of the cooked eggplant on a plate. Place a few strands of spaghetti on top of the eggplant slice; the strands should drape over the slice on both sides.Add some ricotta cheese over the pasta and roll the eggplant slice around the pasta and cheese. Place the roll in the baking dish.

  

When all the rolls are in the baking dish pour a little of the sauce over them and sprinkle the remaining basil on top. Place a slice of smoked mozzarella on top of each roll. Dot the top of each roll with a little more sauce. Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese melts.
Serves 8

This recipe can be found in Death of a Foster Child which explores the guilt felt when the foster placement of a teenage girl in the home of Rick Podowski and his wife failed. To complicate matters, the foster child was brutally murdered and the authorities believe she was selling drugs on the school campus and by implication asserted that the foster parents allowed this behavior. Rick Podowski with the help of Leti Ramos, Erin McGinty and Teresa Spinelli, also know as The Hefty Trio investigate to learn the truth.

     In the process of investigating, they discover the world of drug sales on the high school campus, the underlying challenges facing students in a gang infested school, as well as the difficulties faced by special education students. The reader will experience the frustrations of foster parents when faced with a system that is designed to keep the children dependent. Suggestions to improve foster care and move the children towards independence are provided at the end of the book. 

Odonata Wines

     Odonata the name selected for this new winery is an order of insects, which includes not only dragonflies and damselflies but also nearly 6,000 other species.

     Denis Hoey, the youngest winery owner and winemaker in the Santa Cruz Mountains, graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Business Management in 2004. Soon after that, he met Jeff Emery, owner and winemaker at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. Their relationship quickly turned into an Old World apprenticeship for Denis, who is currently the production manager for SCMV. This experience has been the foundation of Denis' education in the art of wine making.

     Denis made his first wine from the 2005 harvest, and has built his limited production Odonata Wines to 1,000 cases per year, blending old world methods with new world technique to produce nouveau-style wines that include Chardonnay, Grenache, Malbec, and Syrah. His second label, Damselfly Cellars produces Petit Syrah, Sangiovese and Rose.