Eggplant rolls aka "Involtini di Melanzane"

Long_and_Lean

This is a copycat recipe of an appetizer at my favorite Italian restaurant -- I asked the chef for the recipe and he gladly obliged. I love eating this as a main dish, but you could serve it as canapes for a party. It's low cal, healthy and delicious and in no way tastes like "diet food". You can modulate the calories by the amount of goat cheese and pine nuts you add, I use very little as both are flavorful and you don't need much. You'll need

- 1 eggplant, peeled and sliced VERY VERY THIN (the restaurant uses at meat slicer to do this, you could use a mandolin. I don't have either, but I have a badass set of Wusthof knives and some serious knife skills ;-) )
- about 5oz crumbled goat cheese
- 1 large onion, julienned
- 1/3 c of red wine vinegar
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tbsp sugar dissolved 1/3 cup of hot water
- olive oil, S&P
- pine nuts
- mesclun greens/spring mix/lettuce of your choice

season the eggplant slices with salt and grill until soft. I spray the grill with nonstick cooking spray before I do this. Meanwhile, take 2/3 cup of balsamic and boil on high to make a balsamic reduction (if you're feeling lazy, trader joe's has ready made balsamic reduction. I just refuse to buy "specialized" ingredients like that when I have perfectly good balsamic vinegar at home). Meanwhile, sautee the onions in a bit of olive oil. When they are soft, add the red wine vinegar, sugar water and 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, bring to a boil, set a side (this makes a sort of quick sweet+ sour pickled onion). Next step, assembly: stuff each eggplant slice with a bit of onion, goat cheese, a few pine nuts and roll up. This can be labor intensive, and sometimes I opt to just toss it all together like a salad. Top with a drizzle of balsamic reduction, serve over greens.