Wednesday 29 August 2012

Rolling in it!

Rotoli di Tortilla con Spinaci di Amarant, Funghi, Mozzarella e Pancetta
Tortilla Rolls with Amaranth Spinach, Mushrooms, Mozzarella & Bacon


As always, I like to make the best use possible of any left-over produce I may have... nothing makes me sadder than wasting good food! Especially if it is something as nice at the amaranth spinach I bought this weekend or the yummy local mushrooms! No, no, no! Something HAD to be done with them- and that something ended up looking like this!

Using a couple of tortillas and a little imagination, I whipped up this comforting and yummy dish of almost-vegetarian goodness :-) Don't hate me for it! I just couldn't resist throwing the bacon in there! And obviously this dish would work equally well without it. More or less. Haha!


The first thing I did was to blanch the spinach for a minute or so in a little boliling water, then drain it and cool it under the cold top to retain the color. You know my view on using ice cubes. Exactly. Keep things simple... the cold water works just FINE. Wring out any excess water and chop coarsely into more manageable pieces.

Next, I started the bacon frying in a hot non-stick pan, with a little chopped garlic, and once the garlic became translucent, added the mushrooms, which I cut into quarters and then seperated the stems. I seasoned them with salt and pepper and sautéd them for 3-4 minutes until they were nicely brown, the bacon crunchy and the garlic nice and mellow. I then added the spinach and grated everything generously with nutmeg and added a little green Tabasco.


I turned off the heat, got the oven nice and hot at 350°F and got to work on arranging the tortillas in my baking dish. I cut the tortillas into strips of 2-3 ", which I then rolled up and placed standing up in the dish. I then spooned the spinach, mushroom and bacon filling into the rolls evenly. When I was finished with filling, I added some mozzarella cheese on top- but not too much! I didn't want it to become all soggy- obviously the lower part of the tortilla would remain soft and moist and juicy- but I wanted the top to become golden brown and crispy!

A final grating of nutmeg and a sprinkle of crushed black pepper was the finishing touch and after 7-8 minutes baking at 350°F and a further 2-3 under the broiler, dinner was served!

Oh yes, it tasted mighty fine as well as having been so easy, cheap and fun to make! My kind of dinner and I hope maybe yours too some time!

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