To prepare the rice timbale, according to this Sicilian recipe, the first thing you have to peel the eggplants, peel them in stripes (ie 'make sure that it remains part of the peel). Cut them into small cubes, put them in a colander and sprinkle with salt, put on it a weight (a pot filled with water) and keep them like that for about 30 minutes so the bitter liquid is filtered off.
Once done, rinse them, dry them well and fry in extra virgin olive oil. Keep them aside. Prepare a very light tomato sauce by simply adding to the tomato puree onion thinly sliced and soaked in 4-5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the sauce should be made absorbed a little (do not let it thicken too). At the end of cooking, add a few leaves of basil.
Once the tomato sauce is ready to season it with rice that has been previously boiled. Then mix with the rice even half of the pecorino cheese and mix everything very well. In a baking dish with a diameter of about 20 cm, oiled and sprinkled with breadcrumbs, pour half the rice with a spoon, press and compact the surface and put on this layers of salami cut into small cubes, fried eggplant and cut primosale into thin slices.
Then put the rest of the rice, compact and crush with a spoon and sprinkle the surface of the of the rice with the rest pecorino cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 180-190 C. In case you prepare the timbale the day before the tasting, it is advisable to put a few flakes of butter between the two layers and on the surface.

For Christmas I wanted to prepare a dish that was not the usual recipe. So I thought to give to my dears a timbale of rice that I often eat in Sicily. A few simple ingredients but coming together magically. Fried eggplant, salami, cheese and of the rice intense ... a first course, the timbale of rice, which immediately turns the Christmas table in a family table.

Each serving of rice timbale provides about 500 kcal. The energy that brings you to about 17% from protein, 36% from fat and 47% from carbohydrates. It 'a good source compared to the recommended daily dose of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, vitamin B2, B6, B12, niacin, vitamin C and E.