Recipes from Today’s Show: Eggplant Rollatini
Published by lscalaquinn
TODAY on MHTV: Some of you might remember when I went to visit the 4th grade class in Garden City, NY who are big MH fans. I had such a great experience that I invited their teacher, John Contratti, to come on the show and cook his favorite dishes. We’re making eggplant rollatini, an Italian-American staple of lightly fried eggplant slices filled with ricotta cheese and topped with tomato sauce. Then, I’m helping him put together his recipe for a side dish of sautéed endive and radicchio topped with chickpeas and walnuts. More from the show.
Get the recipes from this episode:
Radicchio and Endive Side Dish
Watch ”Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn” Tuesdays through Fridays at 11 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.
Hi Lucinda,
The most delicious recipes today!! Your guest is quite knowledgable about food. Great show.
Linda
Lucinda,
That radicchio looked outrageous. How was it? Loved your guest, John, today.
Sincerely,
Wayne G.
Lucinda,
I’m a retired teacher and I have to say how glad to see that there are teachers as wonderful as Mr. Contratti teaching our kids. You discovered someone special.
Best,
Jackie
I’m making it this weekend! Any way we can get the cookie recipe too?
Lucinda,
I wanted to pull the food off the tv screen. That guy can cook. Great to see guys cooking.
Nick
Lucinda,
Being a vegetarian, I’m always looking for vegetables dishes. Today’s looked wonderful. It seems your guest is quite smart not only ion the classroom but in the kitchen. Would love to see the two of you tigether again. Have fun working with his students again.
Big fan,
Randy
Lucinda,
Such a wonderful episode today! Mr. Contratti seems to be a great educator in the classroom as well as in the kitchen! I hope to see him again soon!
Dear Lucinda,
The show was so special today. It had a great feeling about it. That’s what is special about your show. Your guests are family and friends.The recipes looked great. I always thought eggplant rolatinni was difficult to make. Your guest showed how eay it is. I know what I’m making for dinner this weekend. Please thank your guest for the great recipes.
Yours truly,
Bernice
Lucinda,
Love your show. I really liked the eggplant today. It looked so good. I can’t wait to make it. Your guest’s vegetable dish seems interesting.
Jess
Wow! As a kid, I wish my teachers did fun things like your guest does. I thought he was such an interesting guest. It looks like you enjoyed cooking with him.
Dana
Hi Lucinda,
My kids know that when I get home each day, I sit and watch your show. It’s my “Lucinda time”. The kids know not to bother me. While watching today, I called to my kids to tell them that you were cooking with a 4th grade teacher. My kids are in 2nd and 4th. For the first time, my kids watched your show with me. Your guest seemed quite nice and I found how he teaches to be quite remarkable. My kids definitely want me to make the rolatinni. The vegetables I think my husband and I will have all to ourselves. I just can’t get them to eat vegetables. I agree with your other bloggers today, he was a wonderful addition to your show. Keep on cooking!
Pat
Ran right to the store to get the vegetables, walnuts and chick peas for today’s recipe. It is delicious. With a loaf bread, and a glass of wine :), need I say more. Thanks to the teacher for sharing it with viewers.
Sincerely,
Marc
You are such a warm and gracious host. I found your guest today to be quite creative. His students will be very lucky to have you working with them again in the future. It’s never to early to get kids cooking. I remember my grandmother and me cooking in her kitchen when I was a kid. Your show brought back memories for me today. I look forward to hearing more about you and the teacher.
J
Dear Lucinda,
Thank you for such a wonderful show. I started taping your show a few months ago to watch after work as some “me” time and I was really inclined to write in to your show today because I just loved the teacher that you had on. He seemed very pleasant and likable and perhaps most of all, his recipes seemed uncomplicated and had me salivating! I have already printed the recipes to make this weekend. Looking forward to seeing him on your show again.
Pam
Lucinda,
Your guest’s veggie recipe looked wonderful. The combination is very creative. Would love to learn more about his recipes!
Dear Lucinda,
I’m a mother of a 1 year old and a teacher as well. Coming home from work to a newly walking baby and having to get dinner on the table is not an easy task. I often make the same dishes and cooking has become very boring to me. After seeing today’s show, I can’t wait to get in the kitchen and make the eggplant dish! John was such a great guest! Very knowledgeable and makes me feel I can do it on my own! Keep the recipes from John coming!!
Thanks so much!
Lauren
Wow–Hello to everyone who has written in to praise Mr. Contratti, his teaching and his eggplant. I was so happy it worked out. And–I ate so much of that because it was delicious. My husband is not such an eggplant fan so I don’t cook it that often. He calls it the “organ meat of vegetables”–unfair!! Lol. And, the kids in that class just won my heart!
Also, I’ve been a little under the social media radar as I’ve been getting ready to do my new book and several other things for MSLO including a partnership with Open Sky which I hope you will check out, http://blog.opensky.com/2011/05/a-few-minutes-with-lucinda-scala-quinn/
I’ll be back here chatting with everyone soon. Am just running home to –what else? Make dinner. Best, LSQ
Excellent show today…Excellent recipes.
What a great show! And the recipes are so easy!!! Would love to see him again, maybe with some of his students helping the both of you to make another delicious dish.
Your guest pronounced Endive correctly. You did not.
Dear Lucinda,
What a fabulous show today! Everything looked delicious and was so easy to follow. Your rapport with Mr. Contratti was wonderful. He was so polished and professional! He must be a terrific teacher. I wish I was a student again to have him as my teacher. It would be great to do a follow up episode with him and the students in his class. What a great idea for a show! His love of cooking and pleasant personality was a great addition to your show. You should be very pleased with today’s episode! KUDOS 🙂
Dear Lucinda,
This was truly a wonderful show today. I am a fourth grade teacher and am always looking for new and exciting ways to teach “out of the box.” Mr. Contratti sure underscored that philosophy. The dishes were great, and I love his ideas about using cooking for sequencing, measuring and fractions. Enough with practicing for the state assessments, let’s get back to things we love like teaching children life skills! Mr. Contratti is a natural. He must be a gifted teacher. Can’t wait to see more of him and even his class on your show. Thank you for such great inspiration and for an idea for my next dinner!
Hi Lucinda,
Loved the show today. Believe it or not, I have never had eggplant rollatini, but I plan to make it ASAP. And THOSE cookies! I ran to your book which I purchased on Amazon right after I started watching you and there they were! So, Lilly, buy her book! It is fabulous, too! And I love having so many Lucinda recipes in ONE place! Lucinda, you are a doll!
Hello Lucinda,
First let me thank you so much for your wonderful show. I love that your family and friends are involved and I feel like I know all of you. Your variety of dishes keep cooking from becoming boring and I usually want to reach through the television to try a bite with you! I am planning on making the Eggplant Rollatini and Radicchio side dish this weekend and I am so excited to taste it. My only complaint is that recently your show went down to one 1/2 hour episode instead of two episodes (each day). I don’t know if this happened everywhere or just certain regions, but I sure miss having you in my home for an hour each day. I hope we will see you back with two daily episodes soon!
Michelle D.
Wisconsin
I just discovered your show 3-4 months ago and I love it. Am (was) used to cooking w/ my Mom and 2 sisters for family gatherings (10-20 for every meal for 1-2 weeks), and it was so much fun. She always wanted fresh menus but also something that everyone liked. So now, when I cook for myself, I find myself cooking for 8, eating 1-3 meals, and freezing the rest. I do this with 4-5 recipes and then I have a “reportoire (sp) from which to choose for the week. I usually do this type of cooking in the cooler weather. But I love to be in the kitchen “creating”. Anyway, thank you for the simple pleasure you bring into my home!
Beth
PS from Beth. Those eaters (10-20)were primarially men(grown), and boy can they eat. Not to mention that they were all athletes. So you can imagine the amount of food consumed. And being that they have “selected” tastes, it had to be good. So for 20-30 years we have been successful! Thank you for reading!
Hi Lucinda,
I finally watched this episode. I like to save them up. I’ve been reading the reaction from viewers and wanted to check it out. I agree, this was one of your best episodes. The food combo of both dishes go very well together. I can’t wait to make both of them.
Quite an impressive guest. Well spoken and smart.
I am a big fan of Mad Hungry and I especially enjoy when you cook with others. Would love to see him again.
Also, why are you on only 4 days a week. I want you back for a full hour. What can we do???
Wednesday’s show was very inspirational because we all can be many things in life. A cook, a teacher, and most important agood person.
xxooxx
Dear Lucinda:
I have webtv and been unable to get your recipe by Mr. Contrattti’s eggplant rollatini. Would you please e-mail me the recipe….I would greatly appreciate it.
I watch your cooking on TV
every day. Thank you
Frances Kent
Wow! Wow! Wow! I made both recipes on the weekend! They were outstanding The combination of the two went so well together. Bravo to Lucinda and John!!!
I show my guests the show so they could see the recipes being done. You now have 2 new fans.
Eric
Hi Lucinda,
I was able to make Mr. Contratti’s radicchio and endive side dish. All I can sayis that it was terrific. Putting these few ingredients together provided a most fabulous and healthy treat.
I’m so very curious. No doubt he is a creative teacher. But I’m sure he has many other great recipes that he can share with Mad Hungry viewers. Hope we get the opportunity to see him again on your show in the future.
xxoo
Irene
I loved how easy John made it all seem!! Every recipe I’ve ever made for eggplant rollatini was too many steps and way too complicated. This regained my confidence to make eggplant again! The radicchio and endive was such a simple and delicious dish.
If John is as great a teacher as he was on the show then he has some very lucky students 🙂 I hope to see him on the show again and can’t wait to see what he will cook up next time!
Kristen
Thank heavens for TIVO. I have you set to record every day. I ended up in the hospital for 5 days and caught bits and pieces of this show — nurses, doctors, visitors, etc. kind of interfered with my concentration — It was an inspiration to force me to get out of that hospital so that I could come home and watch this wonderful episode in peace and quiet. GREAT SHOW and the best medicine I received to get out of that place! LOL
KUDDO’s to John AND YOU, LSQ!
Wow!!!! I finally made the eggplant. I now know what everyone was commenting amount. So rich and delicious. Bravo LSQ and John C. My family couldn’t get enough of it this weekend. Hope John shares more great recipes with viewers real soon.
Helen
So I finally made this guys recipes. I’ve been reading all the raves from viewers for awhile now. And I have to admit it, these recipes rocked!!!! This guy can come over and cook for me any time. My guests were so impressed with the raddichio dish that we hit the computer to watch the two of you make it again.
You must cook with him again. I think you have discovered a special talent.
Thanks LSQ and Mad Hungry.