Eggplant Rollatini

This eggplant rollatini recipe is a hearty Italian style dinner everyone will love! Bake the veggie stuffed with a three-cheese filling.

Here’s a delightful Italian eggplant dish that makes dinnertime more special: Eggplant Rollatini! It’s like a combination of eggplant Parmesan and lasagna roll ups. Tender strips of eggplant are wrapped around a creamy three-cheese filling, then baked in homemade tomato sauce and more cheese. They’re extremely satisfying and make for the best showstopping dinner! Here’s what you need to know about this classic Italian dinner recipe.

Ingredients in eggplant rollatini

Eggplant rollatini is an American name for an Italian dish of thinly sliced eggplant rolled around a filling and baked. It Italy it’s called involtini, or involtini di melanzane (involtini made of eggplant). The eggplant may be breaded or dusted in flour before rolling, or it may be rolled without breading.

This eggplant rollatini recipe has lightly broiled eggplant strips wrapped around a filling of ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. The rolls are baked in homemade tomato sauce and covered in more cheese, which makes a cozy, homey vegetarian dinner. It’s also a great gluten-free dinner alternative to lasagna rolls. The ingredients you’ll need are:

• Eggplant
• Olive oil
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Fire roasted crushed tomatoes
• Ricotta cheese
• Mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Egg
• Oregano, nutmeg and salt
• Chopped parsley and/or fresh basil

Ingredient notes

It’s important to use best quality ingredients in this eggplant rollatini for the best results. We recommend making the homemade marinara using fire roasted canned tomatoes, but you can substitute jarred marinara if you like. Here are a few specific ingredient notes to keep in mind:

• Use fire roasted tomatoes. Fire roasted tomatoes make the best flavor: they taste sweet and smoky right out of the can. If you can’t find them, substitute best quality tomatoes for the sauce.
• Or, use best quality jarred marinara. To save time for prep, you can use best quality jarred marinara sauce instead of making the homemade sauce. Keep in mind, the flavor is best following the recipe below!
• Whole milk mozzarella cheese makes a difference. This type of cheese melts much better than part skim mozzarella, and has a richer flavor. It also melts better when reheating.

How to make eggplant rollatini

Eggplant rollatini is simple to put together, but it does involve some time and effort. A tip: you might want to get the help of a partner to put this together! It’s much more fun and comes together quicker. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Slice the eggplant thinly, then broil it. Broiling the eggplant takes just 4 to 6 minutes for a tray, but you’ll need multiple batches to cook all 20 eggplant strips. You can also bake both trays at 425F for about 10 to 15 minutes until they are tender and nearly cooked through.
• Make the homemade marinara sauce following the recipe below.
• Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl.
• Spread a bit of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
• Place 1 tablespoon of the filling on each eggplant slice, then roll it up. Gently roll it around the filling, then place it in the pan.
• Top with more marinara sauce and cheese, then bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cheese is melted.
• Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving, which helps the texture to firm up and any liquid to be absorbed.

Storage and make ahead tips

This eggplant rollatini recipe takes about 1 hour to make, so it’s best for dinner parties or weekends when you have a good amount of prep time. If you’d like to eat it on a weeknight, you can prep some of the components in advance to make for a simpler assembly. Here are a few make-ahead tips:

• Cook the eggplant strips and make the tomato sauce and filling in advance. This saves about 30 to 40 minutes off in the timing of recipe. Refrigerate all three until ready to bake.
• Leftovers store refrigerated for up to 3 days. You can make the entire dish in advance and refrigerate if you like. Leftovers tastes great after re-warming in a 375°F oven.
• If desired, you can freeze leftovers in a sealed container for up to 3 months. However, the eggplant can become more mushy after freezing, so we recommend eating it after refrigeration if possible.

More eggplant recipes

There are so many great ways to eat eggplant! Here are a few of our top eggplant recipes:

• Go for classic Eggplant Parmesan or Eggplant Lasagna
• Try Easy Sauteed Eggplant or Roasted Eggplant
• Opt for Eggplant Meatballs, Eggplant Caponata or Pasta alla Norma
• Try Japanese Eggplant with Garlic & Ginger

01

Eggplant Parmesan (Eggplant Parmigiana)

02

Pasta alla Norma

03

Easy Sauteed Eggplant

04

20 Tasty Eggplant Recipes

This eggplant rollatini recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

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