Eggplant Rollatini Recipe
Inside: Grilled (not fried) eggplant rolled around a lemony, herb-flecked ricotta filling and baked in marinara.
Most eggplant rollatini starts with breaded, fried slices. This eggplant rollatini recipe skips the fryer. Salt the eggplant and grill it until tender with a little chew, then roll it around ricotta brightened with lemon zest, fresh mint and basil. Baked in marinara under mozzarella and parmesan, it eats like a rich Italian casserole without the heaviness of eggplant parm.
I didn’t like aubergine until I was an adult… and this recipe is responsible for that change.
As a kid, I found eggplant soft and spongy, and it disgusted my eight-year-old self, but this rollatini is different. It’s thinly sliced and grilled until tender, not mushy, with a nice chew.
In this recipe, the eggplant rollatini hold their form, making them easy to scoop. Because the veg is grilled and not fried, it’s a lighter alternative to eggplant parmesan and a lot less work.
Rollatini are also called involtini, roulade and roll-ups. Basically, thin slices of grilled eggplant wrapped around a ricotta cheese filling, arranged in a baking dish with marinara sauce and extra cheese on top.
It’s a warm, hearty Italian casserole that works as a vegetarian main course or a tasty side dish with a larger meal.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- It tastes indulgent–like eating a rich Italian casserole, not the veggie-centric dish that it is.
- The eggplant isn’t mushy–it’s soft and tender, but holds its form.
- There’s no messy frying. The eggplant gets a quick grill, in a grill pan or on your Weber.
- Three kinds of cheese! ‘Nuff said.
- Most of the work is hands-off: the filling comes together while the eggplant salts.
- It’s a delicious vegetarian meal, even for meat-eaters.
- Eggplant involtini is naturally gluten-free and the carb count comes from the vegetable and tomato sauce.
- If you don’t like eggplant, this is a gateway recipe.
Ingredients:
- Eggplant – Look for two medium globe or Italian eggplants that are about the same size and firm and shiny, with no blemishes.
- Olive Oil – You don’t need a fancy extra virgin olive oil, though you can use it if it’s what you’ve got. It’s just for grilling the eggplant.
- Ricotta Cheese – I used whole milk ricotta for a richer flavor, but you can also use skim.
- Mozzarella Cheese – I use the packaged pre-shredded variety because it has less moisture and won’t get runny in the eggplant involtini.
- Grated Parmesan Cheese – I like to grate it fresh from a block of Parmigiano Reggiano.
- Egg – is the binder for the ricotta cheese filling.
- Kosher Salt – to draw moisture out of the eggplant slices so they’ll get grill marks as you cook them.
- Black Pepper – freshly ground is best because it has the most potent flavor.
- Fresh Basil – elevate the eggplant roll-ups and give them a fresh finish. I like to chiffonade the basil by stacking the leaves and rolling it into a tight “cigarette” shape, then slicing it very thinly crosswise.
- Fresh Mint – Though it seems like an odd ingredient, mint adds a fresh note similar to a bay leaf when simmered in sauces or soups.
- Fresh Oregano – Oregano has a strong flavor, so you don’t need quite as much. If you don’t have fresh oregano, you can use dried.
- Lemon Zest – Adds a nuanced citrusy flavor to the cheese filling. Don’t use lemon juice.
- Marinara Sauce – Use a homemade marinara sauce or your favorite store-bought variety.
How to make eggplant rollatini
1. Slice the eggplant. Heat the oven to 375°F and grease a 2-quart casserole dish. Trim the stem and the bottom of each eggplant, then slice lengthwise from root to tip into ¼- to ½-inch slices. A long, thin carving knife gives you the cleanest cuts.
2. Salt the slices. Lay the slices on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, sprinkle with kosher salt and let them sit for 15 minutes. Flip, salt the other side and wait another 15 minutes.
3. Rinse and blot dry. Rinse off the salt, then blot the slices completely dry with paper towels.
4. Make the filling. While the eggplant salts, stir together the ricotta, ½ cup mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan, the egg, basil, mint, oregano, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
5. Grill the eggplant. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and grill the slices in batches, 4 to 5 minutes per side, until tender with grill marks. On a gas grill, you can fit them all at once.
6. Fill and roll. Lay a slice on your work surface with the short end facing you. Add a mounded tablespoon of filling about 1½” from the bottom, fold the end over the filling and roll it up snugly.
7. Fill the dish. Spread ½ cup of marinara over the bottom of the casserole dish. Set each roll in the dish and repeat until you’ve used all the eggplant and filling.
8. Sauce the rolls. Spoon the remaining marinara over the tops of the rolls.
9. Add the cheese. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan on top.
10. Bake and rest. Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and the cheese melts. Let it rest 5 to 10 minutes so the rolls hold together, then serve with extra marinara, cheese and fresh basil.
Pro-Tips:
- I like to use a long, thin carving knife to cut the eggplant because the blade is longer than the vegetable, so you saw less back and forth and get cleaner cuts.
- If you’re using a grill pan, you’ll need to cook the eggplant in batches, but if you have a gas grill, you should be able to fit them all on at once.
Common mistakes to avoid:
- Skipping the salt. Salting pulls water out of the eggplant. Skip it, and the slices steam in the pan instead of picking up grill marks, and the casserole turns watery.
- Not blotting the slices dry. Same problem. Pat them dry after you rinse off the salt.
- Overfilling the rolls. A mounded tablespoon is plenty. More than that squeezes out the sides when you roll.
- Using fresh mozzarella. It’s wetter and can make the dish runny. Pre-shredded, low-moisture mozzarella melts without pooling.
- Cut in right away. Let it rest 5 to 10 minutes after the oven so the rolls set and hold their shape.
Swaps and Variations:
- For a lighter version of this eggplant rollatini recipe, swap ricotta cheese for low-fat cottage cheese. It works just as well.
- Instead of marinara sauce, use your favorite meat sauce with ground beef or sausage.
- Add sautéed mushrooms, roasted bell peppers or spinach to the ricotta filling for extra nutrition.
- Sprinkle the eggplant with a little crushed red pepper flakes when making the rollatini for a spicy kick.
- Like the ricotta filling? It’s the same idea as my baked spinach and cheese stuffed manicotti.
- Don’t want to roll the eggplant? Assemble the casserole in layers of grilled eggplant, ricotta, mozzarella and marinara. Continue in this manner, then top with a final sprinkle of sauce, mozzarella and parmesan.
Storage:
- Store leftover eggplant rollatini tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Reheating:
- Reheat, covered, in the microwave in 30-45 second bursts or in a 350° oven for 10 to 15 minutes until heated through..
Freezing:
- You can freeze the assembled (but not baked) rollatini in a casserole dish, wrapped in freezer paper, for up to 3 months.
- Bake it straight from the freezer, covered loosely with foil at 350° for about 50 minutes to one hour.
- Remove the foil at about the 40-minute mark to brown the cheese.
- You can freeze a baked casserole and reheat it as described above, or thaw and reheat in a 350° oven for about 20-25 minutes.
FAQs
It has a good balance of protein, carbs and fat, and with no pasta or breading it’s lower in carbs than lasagna or eggplant parm. Use part-skim ricotta and mozzarella to lighten it further.
Trim the stem from the eggplant and lay the vegetable on its side. Use a long, thin, sharp knife (I prefer a carving knife) and slice lengthwise from root to tip into ¼- to ½-inch slices.
Eggplant parmesan layers breaded, fried eggplant slices with sauce and cheese, a lot like lasagna. Rollatini rolls each slice around a ricotta filling and bakes the rolls in sauce. Plenty of restaurant versions bread and fry the eggplant for rollatini too. Mine grills it instead, so there’s no breading station and it’s a lighter dish.
Bake it uncovered at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the sauce bubbles at the edges and the cheese melts. Let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving so the rolls hold together.
This version is, because the eggplant is grilled, not breaded. If you’re using store-bought marinara, check the label to be sure.
No. I leave the skin on, and it gives each roll a pretty striped edge.
We like to serve this rolled eggplant dish with extra marinara sauce and a warm crusty bread for sopping up the leftover bits on the plate. But here are a few other options:
What goes with eggplant rollatini
- Balsamic Dijon Roasted Mushrooms
- Simple Green Leaf Salad
- Garlic Green Beans Recipe
- Soft Parmesan Dinner Rolls
- Buttered Noodles with Parsley
- Make it a side dish to a larger meal served with chicken, beef or pork.
More Italian recipes to try:
- Italian Pasta Fagioli recipe
- Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers with Pasta
- Italian Sausage Soup with Pasta, White Beans and Kale
- Tender Italian Oven Baked Meatballs
More Mediterranean eggplant recipes to try:
Eggplant Rollatini Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 medium eggplant
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese I used whole milk; can substitute skim or cottage cheese.
- 1 cup low-fat, part-skim mozzarella shredded, divided
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese grated, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt divided
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil chiffonade; or 1½ teaspoons dried
- 1½ teaspoons fresh oregano chopped; or ¾ teaspoon dried
- 2 teaspoons fresh mint chopped; or 1 teaspoon dried
- ½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest
- 2 cups marinara sauce
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 375°. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with vegetable spray and set aside.
SLICE AND SALT THE EGGPLANT:
- Cut the stems and heel off 2 medium eggplant, then slice them into ¼-½" thick slices from root to tip.
- Place the slices on a wire rack sitting on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon kosher salt and let sit for 15 minutes. Flip the eggplant, sprinkle the other side with ½ teaspoon kosher salt and let sit for another 15 minutes. Rinse the salt off the eggplant, then blot dry thoroughly with paper towels.
WHILE THE EGGPLANT RESTS, MAKE THE CHEESE FILLING
- Combine 15 ounces ricotta cheese, ½ cup mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan, 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon fresh basil, 1½ teaspoons fresh oregano, 2 teaspoons fresh mint,½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest, ½ teaspoon kosher salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.
GRILL THE EGGPLANT
- Heat a large griddle pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and turn the pan to coat. Working in batches, lay the eggplant onto the hot grill pan and cook on one side for 4-5 minutes, until tender and grill marks appear. Flip the eggplant and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Transfer the grilled eggplant to a sheet pan while you continue cooking the rest.
ASSEMBLE THE ROLLATINI:
- Spoon ½ cup of marinara sauce into the bottom of the casserole dish and spread it with a spoon.
- Lay a slice of eggplant (short end facing you) on a work surface. Add a mounded tablespoon of ricotta filling about 1½" from the bottom of the eggplant carefully fold the bottom over the filling, and continue rolling the eggplant up into a tight roll.
- Transfer the eggplant to the casserole dish and continue until you've used all the eggplant and filled the container.
- Spoon the remaining marinara over the tops of the rollatini. Garnish with the remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and fragrant.
- Let the dish sit for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with extra marinara sauce, cheese and chopped basil.
NOTES:
NUTRITION:
Nutritional Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate only and is provided as a courtesy. Values are calculated automatically based on the ingredients and quantities in each recipe and may vary depending on specific brands, exact measurements, and substitutions made. For precise nutritional guidance, especially if you have a medical condition or dietary restriction, please consult a registered dietitian or run the ingredients through your own nutrition calculator.“Pin It” For Later!
Can I preassemble and bake the next day?
That should work, just ensure that the eggplant is grilled well and any excess moisture is soaked up with a paper towel.
Delicious dish!
I love your photo! Great recipe. I might make these for Thanksgiving for my pescatarian daughter!
Good end result, but the promise that you’ll have dinner in under an hour is way off—even the recipe itself doesn’t allow for this. Plan on 1.5 hours if you work efficiently.
This looks so good!! Do you think the recipe would change much if I used crookneck squash instead of zucchini?
Well, it’s eggplant, not zucchini – eggplant is a little sturdier than squash – but if you wanted to use squash — I would layer it with the cheese mixture instead of rolling it… Like a squash lasagna.
I grew up eating eggplant rollatini (my grandmother made it often), and it’s always been one of my favorites. It’s lighter than sitting down to a plate of lasagna, but still an indulgent-feeling treat. I’ll have to try the cottage cheese filling sometime for an even lighter swap.
Definitely lighter than lasagna – and the cottage cheese gets a bright kick from herbs and lemon!
I really appreciate your honest description of your past with eggplant because it’s so similar to how I feel about it and how my family reacts to it these days. It also gives me even greater confidence in trying this recipe as a good introductory point to incorporating my eggplant into our diets!
I absolutely love eggplants and I am always looking for recipes where I can highlight their amazing taste. I love everything about this recipe and the fact that is gluten free is a huge plus! Saving this recipe to make next week.
Hahaha I can totally relate. I never had eggplant as a kid, but my husbands mother was Italian and she apparently included it in everything. He hates it with a passion and when I came home from the market with one the other week he made me promise the only thing I would do with it is make baba gnaoush (because apparently he can handle that). I still have the huge eggplant sitting on the counter so I will have to try this one out on him and see how we go 🙂
Top anything with enough cheese and sauce and even eggplant haters will love it! I will love it either way, but I can’t resist cheese and sauce either. 🙂 I’m glad you’re working through your eggplant aversion with such tasty rollatini since now I can try your recipe too.
I am loving this low-carb rollatini version. Saucy and flavorful. I can’t wait to make it and see how much flavor grilling the eggplant adds to the dish.
I can’t wait to make this! It looks delicious and with us being gluten free this is the perfect gluten free meal. My husband always complains if I serve him a meal without meat, so I think I will use my meat sauce recipe with it to avoid his complaints. I haven’t cooked with egg plant in years, so I am excited to make this. Thank you for the recipe.
Funny, I didn’t even think about this as being gluten free — though it obviously is. I hope you and your husband enjoy it!
It’s funny, I was just thinking of making an eggplant lasagna but this looks even better! I love anything grilled eggplants and combined with all of those nice italian flavours, this recipe sound incredible!
I totally get the eggplant thing. It took me a LONG time before I ate it too. My mom never cooked it (but she did have lots of Ball mason jars of other things in the cold cellar). It wasn’t until I was married (for a long time) before I started to experiment with eggplant. Today…although we do not have it often, it has grown on me. I actually have some in the fridge right now. Maybe I need to give this recipe a try!! One thing I LOVE made with eggplant is baba ganoush!!
I like baba ganoush too — I think it’s the pita crisp and dip thing that does it for me.
I think your hubby and mine are brothers. Not only would the site of an eggplant on the counter scare him but he would have a preconceived idea that the dinner would be bad and wouldn’t enjoy the dish. I’m definitely saving this, I would love to sneak this one in, going to have to prep it while he’s away;) It looks delicious and if we had smell-a-vision, my house would smell like an Italian restaurant right now. Thanks for sharing this, really liking the low carb aspect of this!
Normally I’m not a fan of eggplant but I like the way you grilled them first. I think covering anything in cheese and sauce like this is okay with me!
One of my favorite dishes. Will share on pinterest. Looks very delicious.
This looks really good. I am pinning this to come back to once my garden begins to produce!
I do so love eggplant and this keto-friendly dish has me drooling! So much better than pasta rollatini IMO!