Frank's Sketchbook Entry of the Day

I decided to make something that involved a tomato sauce and eggplant. I found a recipe for Eggplant Rolls with Spicy Tomato Sauce at Epicuious.com. I made some modifications to the recipe based on what I had and what I felt like doing. Specifically, the tomato sauce only had tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, and I put it in the blender at the end. It did not have a strong taste on its own, but combined with everything else it worked, as it didn't overpower anything. I didn't have ricotta cheese, so I used fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, some diced kalimata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil. Each roll only had a very small amount of the filling, but unlike how I (am unable to) make burritos (they explode from being overstuffed), these were not overstuffed, and the cheese and olives had a strong enough flavor so that a small amount was enough. I threw the arugula down just to give it some color and beause I had some handy.

It tasted quite good. I would say it earns the "doesn't suck" rating.

I was also experimenting with a new flash. This was the best picture of the lot. There was some light from the built-in flash on my camera and the other flash was held directly above the rolls. Hence the shadow of the plate is going slightly towards the camera.