Involtini de Melanzano

Photo © Rob Jones

Vera likes fish and chips.

Inspector Morse has his music.

Inspector Montalbano loves his Sicilian food.

And that has to be one of the attractions of the series for me, apart from the beautiful Sicilian scenery, and the knotty crimes.

I wondered if there was actually a recipe book based on the series. And there is… only it’s in German, which is fine. It points you in the direction of lots of lovely Sicilian recipes.

This one was fabulous. Snack or a starter, or a dirty treat watching a TV crime series. There are more complex recipes about but I kept it simple.

Involtini de Melanzano

Anne-Marie regards aubergines as ‘the bassoon of the orchestra’ but I rather like aubergines and bassoons for that matter.

Thinly slice an aubergine, really thin. Not as easy as it sounds.

Fry it off in plenty of olive oil, season lightly with salt and coarse ground pepper. Leave to drain off some of the oil.

Dice some Mozzarella into little cubes about 1cm.

Make up a tomato sauce - I used some mashed plum tomatoes.

When the aubergine is cool enough, spread one side with the tomato sauce, place a couple of cubes of mozzarella to one end, and lay a basic layer or two, whole, along the rest of the aubergine slice. Roll it up starting from the mozzarella end.

Place in an ovenproof dish or plate, sprinkle with parmesan and bake for 20 minutes or so, until the mozzarella melts and the sauce bubbles a bit.

Serve as soon as they are cool enough to eat.

RJ