Cheever Sauce

Cooking comes pretty natural to me. Am I coming off too arrogant? I should pat myself on the back a couple more times and submit my blog to the James Beard Foundationwith a statement like that. But what I mean by that is, cooking just makes sense to me. I get it. Chess? No. Cooking? Yes. So it came as a surprise to me that while I was surfing other food blogs for recipe ideas, a pretty basic Italian dish…sort of stumped me. I can’t put a finger on exactly what was so confusing to me about the idea of a rollatini, it seamed simple enough, but I nevertheless felt uncomfortable with the idea of rolling up some ingredients, in a breaded additional ingredient, topped with some more ingredients, and then baking it. Would this even work? Even the name of it -rollatini - sounded so foreign and uncertain to me. #foodbloggerproblems

 I guess because I never ate rollatinis growing up, and wasn’t familiar with the dish, (I’m guessing I spent my whole life scanning over it at Italian restaurants, in between the veal parmesean and pasta bolognese) I was sort of stumped out of pure jealousy. As a huge fan of stacking, why hadn’t I ever thought to roll up my ingredients and bake them all together? It’s genius. All of the sudden everywhere I looked I found a rollatini On menus, my interns leftover lunch, even a friend posted it to her food blog (Jewtalian - check her out!). So I decided it was time to buckle down and make some rollatini. With a protein craving paving the way, I decided to go the chicken route.

Apparently, you can roll anything inside a chicken. Chicken rollatini with zucchini and mozaarella, chicken rollatini Alfredo, Chicken rollatini with asparagus and pancetta…the sky’s the limits with this poultry, and while the options are endless, I decided to go basic. I found this recipe on Skinny Taste and boy does that Gina know how to lighten up a dish without sacrificing flavor. The whole process was extremely easy and painless and the end result was a perfect winter dish. The best part is that you’re getting all your flavors in one bite, and everything comes together in a simple and elegant way. I can’t wait to try a different version next time I cook it - and now that I am no longer a rollatini virgin, it’s time to get down and dirty - eggplant I’m looking at you.

Read on for the recipe adapted from Skinny Taste!

1. Wash and dry thin chicken breast cutlets depending on how many people you’re serving, and season with salt and pepper. 
2. Preheat oven to 450°. Lightlyspray a baking dish with non-stick spray.
3. Combine 2 handfuls of whole wheat breadcrumbs and a bunch of your favorite spices you have on hand (I used dried thyme, and parsley) and 4 large pinches of grated parmesan cheese in one bowl and 5 egg whites in another.
4. Combine your 1 pack of frozen spinach (defrosted-  make sure you squeeze it dry) with 1/4 cup of more parmesan cheese, and 2 egg whites. Stir until it’s all one consistency. 
5.  Lay chicken cutlets down on a working surface and spread 2 tbsp of spinach-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down.
6.  Dip chicken in egg mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spray with olive oil. **(Cheeversauce note: I dipped my chicken in the egg then breadcrumbs before I added the spinach so it was breaded on each side before rolled. I found that there was too much breading so I suggest doing it the above way).
7.  Bake 25 minutes. 
8. Remove from oven, top each rollatini with marinara sauce and 1 slice of mozzarella cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbling, about 5 more minutes. 
9. Serve with additional sauce on the side and grated cheese.
10. Enjoy!