As you may have noticed, I am a bit of a magpie when it comes to cooking. I like to cherry-pick aspects of different cuisines and twist them a fair amount for my own recipes.
Unless you are one of these people who can eat the same thing day in and day out, being able to draw on the culinary heritage of the whole world is very much a necessity when you become vegan. The fact that so many conventional dishes are off limits forces you to get out of you comfort zone and explore unfamiliar ingredients and flavour combinations – a process which results in so many happy discoveries! 🙂 Today’s inspiration came from Italy. I made a vegan version of the Italian classic – involtini melanzane. If you live in a big, buzzing city with plenty of vegan options at your fingertips, you can probably buy a vegan ricotta easily, in which case this recipe will be rather quick to make. I’m not that lucky in this respect so I’ve had to get off my ass and come up with a vegan ricotta before I even started rolling my aubergine slices. My ricotta is easy to make and it makes a perfect creamy filling for these involtini babies so please do try if you cannot get hold of a shop bought cheese. I know it’s a bit more work, but it’s worth it, trust me! I don’t know about you, but a couple of succulent aubergine rolls filled with a beautifully creamy cheese topped with a luscious tomato sauce is pretty much my idea of a dinner heaven, especially when accompanied by a big green salad and a cheeky glass of wine.
3 large and long aubergines (about 700 g / 1.5 lb) 1 portion vegan ricotta, homemade or shop-bought* 1½ tbsp pine nuts 1½ tbsp coarse breadcrumbs fresh basil, to garnish olive oil
