Zucchini Rollatini with Roasted Butternut Squash Cream Sauce

I’ve read many a blog post recently about hav­ing way too much of var­i­ous items from people’s CSAs. For some, it’s zuc­chini. For oth­ers, yel­low squash. For us, it’s been egg­plant. Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of egg­plant up until recently, but we have received so much of it over the past 2 months that we just couldn’t take it any more. Which is why we were delighted to not only have an egg­plant free share this week, but to have received two rather nice look­ing zuc­chi­nis. Lately I’ve been want­ing to do a rol­la­tini which is typ­i­cally made with egg­plant but due to my recent aver­sion to the egg­plant I have wanted to make it with zuc­chini. As soon as I saw these green god­desses in our share box this week, I knew i’d make it. But, for a twist I decided I’d make a cream sauce with but­ter­nut squash, one of which we just hap­pened to still have hang­ing around. For the full recipe and more pic­tures, keep reading.

The star of this dish was by far the sauce. It was so vel­vety smooth and burst­ing with fall fla­vors that I felt like it was the end of October rather then the begin­ning of September. The sauce was super easy to make and with a few mod­i­fi­ca­tions I think it would actu­ally work really well as just a soup. I am pray­ing that we will get more but­ter­nut squashes this fall as this recipe will become a sta­ple in our house!

Butternut Squash Cream Sauce

1 but­ter­nut squash
2 tbsp. but­ter
2 shal­lots, chopped
salt and pep­per to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parme­san cheese
1/4 tsp. nut­meg
1/8 tsp. all­spice
1/2 cup apple juice

Preheat oven to 400º F. Cut Butternut Squash in half length­wise and remove seeds.

Place on a greased cookie sheet cut side down and roast for  35 – 45 min depend­ing on the size of your squash. Once squash has cooked, let cool for 10 min.

While Squash is cool­ing, Preheat a large saucepan with but­ter. Add shal­lots, salt & pep­per and sauté for 7 min­utes until shal­lots are translu­cent. Once squash has cooled, pureé in a blender with cream. Add the squash & cream mix­ture to shal­lots along with apple juice, all­spice, nut­meg and Parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low, sim­mer­ing for 10 min­utes. Makes roughly 3 cups of sauce, depend­ing on the size of your squash.

Zucchini Rollatini

2 medium zuc­chini cut into 1/8 – 1/4″ slices, pat­ted dry
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup panko bread­crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

2 cups moz­zarella cheese
1 cup ricotta
chopped basil
a pinch of chopped fresh oregano
a pinch of chopped fresh rose­mary
a pinch of salt & pepper

3 cups Butternut Squash Cream Sauce (recipe above)
1/4 cup shred­ded fresh Parmesan cheese
chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 350º F.
Using 3 bowls, set up a dredge sta­tion with flour in first bowl, eggs in 2^nd bowl and the remain­ing dredge ingre­di­ents in third bowl. Coat zuc­chini slices one at a time in flour, egg then bread­crumb mix­ture. Place breaded zuc­chini slices on a greased cookie sheet (most likely you’ll need two sheets).

Bake slices for 30 min flip­ping once halfway through. Let cool for 10 min once done cook­ing. While Zucchini is cool­ing, mix cheeses, herbs, salt and pepper.

Spread 1 cup of sauce on the bot­tom of a greased 8 x 8 ” glass bak­ing dish. Once zuc­chini is cooled, form a ball out of the cheese mix­ture (about 1/3 cup) and place at the end of a zuc­chini strip. Roll zuc­chini, enclos­ing the cheese mix­ture and place into bak­ing dish. repeat for the rest of the zuc­chini strips and cheese.

Spread another cup of sauce over the top of the zuc­chini rolls and top with shred­ded Parmesan cheese.

Place back into oven and bake for 30 min­utes until cheese on top is melted.

Serve over penne pasta with remain­ing sauce and gar­nish with parsley.