Grilled eggplant! delicious BBQ rolls!

This recipe takes the simple eggplant to a whole new level, just full of flavor. So delicious and so easy to make – this comes together quickly and makes for an amazing side dish or appetizer.

One of Ivo’s signature dishes – Special Grilled Eggplant

Ingredients:
• 1 large eggplant
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) (enough to coat all eggplant slices)
• Bocconcini cheese, or fresh Mozzarella cheese (Approx. 5 – 7 bocconcini balls or 1 mozzarella ball)
• Prosciutto slices (sliced thin) (one slice per eggplant slice i.e. Approx. 7 – 10 slices)
• Salt

Method:
• Preheat BBQ on high
• Remove skin from Eggplant
• Slice eggplant lengthwise, into long ¼” thick “steaks”
• Brush each side of the eggplant steaks with EVOO
• Very lightly, salt each side of the eggplant (use very little salt – as the prosciutto may be salty enough – depends on your prosciutto)
• Slice your Bocconcini or Mozzarella into ¼ inch thick slices (6 mm) (coin shaped)
• Place eggplant on grill, leave grill lid open and leave heat on high
• Cook till bottom turns golden brown, typically, 4 – 5 minutes
• Flip eggplant, then add a slice of prosciutto on top of each eggplant steak
• Then, on the wide end of the eggplant steak, add about 4 pieces of the bocconcini slices, so basically, half or just less than half, of your eggplant has the bocconcini on it (or mozzerella)
• Continue to cook for about 4 – 5 minutes – you will notice the bocconcini start to get soft
• Put your grill on low, and take one end of the eggplant steak (the end with the cheese) and roll it toward the other end, making a log. With a toothpick, stick the log straight through, in order to secure in place. Remove from grill. Continue to roll all your eggplant, the same way.
• Serve hot and enjoy!

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Thank you!

Hello everyone. My name is Ivo. Great to see you and welcome to Cooking with the Coias. Today folks, I’m going to make one of my signature dishes. It’s an amazing little side dish or appetizer. We’re going to turn this eggplant into something absolutely delicious. Let’s get started right now. Okay, I’ve got the barbecue heating, preheating right now, we’re going to start by cutting off the end. I’m gonna clean this up. This will be used for soup stock, don’t throw anything away. And same with the bottom end. I’m just going to flatten it out here to give me a flat surface to work with. So first thing we’re going to do is just quite simply remove the skin of the eggplant because it’s a little bit bitter. So we’re gonna just with a potato peeler let’s get this completely removed. OK there we have it. We want to, again, I’m going to just make a little flat surface here. Let’s remove a little bit of that eggplant, again soup stock. Okay, so what we want to do is slice, I am going to call them eggplant steaks, about a quarter inch thick. So just quite simply, that’s why we wanted those flat sides, just to help us keep this eggplant balanced. Oh, I’m looking forward to sharing this recipe, folks, because this dish is absolutely delicious. You make it as a side dish for yourself, your friends, your family. You’re going to love it. Okay, let me finish slicing these up. Now very simply, we’re going season our eggplant very lightly. I’m going to add just a little bit of salt. Not a lot because one of the ingredients that we’re using is prosciutto. And prosciutto is already a little salty, so we don’t want to add too much salt. Now, at this point, besides salt, you can add other spices. And I normally add a roasted garlic and pepper spice that I really, really like. But today, I’m keeping it really simple just to show you how simple this recipe is and how delicious it’s gonna turn out. So, a little bit of salt. Okay, and now, our next very important ingredient. Okay, those of you who’ve tuned in, you already know what that ingredient is, right? Extra virgin olive oil. You wanna take that extra virgin olive oil and brush it on both sides of the eggplant. It’ll absorb a little, and that’s exactly what we want. So, extra virgin oil, be generous, brushed on both side. So, let me do that to all of these eggplant slices. You can see it absorbing the color change, the difference. Isn’t that nice? Okay, let me keep going. Okay, now that that’s done. I got my prosciutto here from Italy. That’s ready to go. And I’m going to use now one of the next key ingredients is mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella, regular mozzarella or bocconcini is another great cheese to use. I’m gonna use some fresh mozzarella and basically I’m going to slice it. One-eighth inch thick or so. I’m going to make some nice slices of fresh mozzarella. And once I finish cutting this up we’re going to make our way over to the grill that’s been patiently waiting. Okay the grill is preheated and ready to go and we’re gonna grill these eggplant slices with the lid open. You do not want to close the lid. Okay so let’s place our eggplant steaks right on the grill. And we’re going to want to grill these until they get golden brown on the bottom. Depending on your barbecue, usually, usually three to four minutes. Okay, we’re gonna get them all spread out here. There we go. Perfect. All right. Let’s give them three to four minutes and then we’re going to turn them. OK, so we are approaching four minutes and this one was the end piece. I moved it over from there to here because it was too hot there. And as you can see, that’s cooked up nicely. It’s a little bit thinner. So this one’s going to be done quicker. And some of these other ones, let’s see. OK, that could actually cook a little bit more. Yeah, we’re gonna let them stay. I cut them maybe a tad bit thicker than normal. Okay and this one looks a little thinner. Yeah okay. I’ll flip that one looks like a couple of these are going to be ready sooner than some others because my inconsistency folks in in slicing. Let’s see this one. Yeah that one’s ready too. Look at that. Oh that one is perfect. That’s nice. That is a great one right there. Okay I’m gonna have to move relatively quickly now. How about this one that I moved earlier? This is a thicker one. Okay, it’s looking good too. Let me get started. First thing we want to do, to these ones that we’ve cooked, one slice of prosciutto goes on top. This is nice prosciutto from Italy. And this is going to add a touch of amazing flavor to this eggplant. It complements it so nicely. Okay, let’s keep working here because as we’re doing this, the bottom sides are cooking, right? So, and I do have the grill on high. This one’s a little thinner. Okay, and now that we have the prosciutto on, next ingredient, folks, is our mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella, I also really really like using bocconcini as well. Either way, you can’t go wrong. These are going to be, oh look at this. Look at this! Maybe a little more here. Maybe have another touch there, okay. These ones should be ready now. Look at this. Beautiful. And you can see they’re not really sticking because of all that beautiful extra virgin olive oil we used. Okay. Another slice of prosciutto. Get that covered, get that covered. Again, working relatively quickly, because, like I say, the bottom sides are burning, or cooking, and our cheese is now starting to melt. And I have one more slice of prosciutto left, so why not use it? Okay, these bigger pieces, maybe I’ll put a little more there. All right, those are done, and now, of course, we gotta add our mozzarella cheese. Beautiful, beautiful, fresh mozzarella. Gotta love that. If you’re not using it on your pizzas, you’re using it on your eggplant. OK. Nice I used it all up. Okay so these ones you could see are now starting to melt and it’s been a few minutes and this one’s a little bit thinner. So we’re going to take it. Look at this bundle of joy right there. One toothpick. That one’s done. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This one was also thin. Get same thing, roll it. Toothpick Oh, the flavor in these folks, you absolutely have to give this recipe a try. Oh yes. Okay, this one’s done too. Hot in the back here. Nice little roll just one toothpick so everyone knows there’s one toothpicks in there here we go this one i started to roll Beautiful. We’re coming along folks. We are coming along. Look at this. That melted mozzarella. Oh wow. Oh my goodness. I’ll tell you what. Hot, hot, hot. Hot hot hot. Which one was next? This one is rather large. We’re gonna do this one next. Let’s bring you over a little closer so I don’t burn my hands. And we’re gonna roll that. That one’s a bit thicker. Okay. Oh Okay, and these look like they’re ready. That one needs another minute. This one, this one’s thinner. Yeah, that’s perfect. See that nice color on the bottom? That’s what you want right there. It’s exactly what you want. Okay, oh, this one is oozing mozzarella. Look. Okay, which one now? This one? This one. This one. Oh yeah, there we go. Another toothpick. And we got one more, folks, one more. Hot, hot, hot. I guess I could put the grill on low now, right? I can actually turn it right off. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. Folks, take a look at this. Where are we here? Right about there. Look at the mozzarella. Just oozing out of those eggplant rolls. There’s a reason this is one of my signature dishes. Let’s go do the taste test. Unbelievable, can’t wait. My favorite part, always. Piping hot. Oh, look at the stringy mozzarella. Take my toothpick out. Okay oozing, oozing oozing. Little slice. Oh, I don’t know if you can see that, but what a thing of beauty. Absolutely delicious. What a great side dish this would make right here. That prosciutto and mozzarella enhance this grilled eggplant. You absolutely need to give this recipe a try. It is so easy to make, simple ingredients, comes together quickly, and it’s absolutely delicious. Best if eaten warm, but cold, they’re still good, but I love them right off the grill and on the plate. Folks, wherever you’re tuning in from, I want to thank you for joining me on today’s episode of Cooking with DeCoya’s. And as always, until next time, bon appetito. I am going to enjoy this very, very much. Mmm, mmm, so good.