Fall in love with the flavors of this cheesy eggplant rollatini, also known in Italy as Involtini di Melanzane! No breading, no oils, just cooked eggplant stuffed with ricotta, parmesan cheese, and lots of fresh basil. Then baked to perfection with freshly grated cheese and rich tomato sauce – the most delicious meatless dinner the whole family will love.
Over the years, I have fallen in love with eggplant in my recipes, especially in Italian dishes. And today, I’m serving up one of my favorites!
If you’ve never had it before, eggplant rollatini is an Italian dish consisting of thinly sliced eggplant traditionally dusted with flour and then “rolled” up with ricotta cheese and an herb filling. The word rollatini in Italy is also known as “involtini,” it refers to food that can be eaten in small bites or rolled up with a filling.
This recipe is a little different than the traditional Italian method. Instead of coating the eggplant in flour and pan-frying before rolling up and baking, the eggplant slices are baked rather than fried without any breading or oils. The results are delicious and may surprise some who are used to traditional rollatini!
Get ready to serve this one up at your next family gathering. I’m certain it’ll be a hit!
Ingredients – What You Need
This meal requires only 8 ingredients and takes only a few simple steps. See the full list of ingredients below!
Eggplant: use two large eggplants or several smaller eggplants. Be sure they are wide enough to hold your filling when rolled up!
Ricotta cheese: a creamy cheese that is used for the filling that gets rolled up into the eggplant.
Marinara: we love using homemade marinara or Rao’s for store-bought!
Parmesan: freshly grated is recommended! This salty cheese is used in both the filling and on top of the rollatini for flavor.
Egg: to help bind the ricotta filling ingredients together.
Garlic cloves: fresh garlic is best to flavor the cheese filling, but you can also use garlic powder!
Basil: fresh basil is used in the ricotta filling, and it’s a must! I don’t recommend swapping for dried basil, the flavor will not be the same.
Mozzarella cheese: a fresh cheese that is creamy and mild in flavor. This cheese is for sprinkling over top of the rollatini for a melty top!
How to Make It – Step by Step
Preheat oven to 400F
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1
Slice the eggplant into 1/4-inch thick pieces.
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2
Salt the eggplant on both sides with a small pinch of coarse salt. Let it “sweat” the excess moisture out for 10 minutes – then pat dry with paper towels and wipe off the remaining salt.
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3
Lay eggplant on a lightly greased pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.
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4
In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, parmesan, egg, salt & pepper, minced garlic, and fresh basil.
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5
Then spoon 1-2 Tablespoons of the ricotta filling onto the bottom of the eggplant slice. Roll it up and repeat until the ricotta filling is finished.
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6
In a baking dish, spoon half the sauce onto the bottom and then place the eggplant rolls in the dish.
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7
Spoon the remaining sauce over the top of the dish.
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8
Then top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes uncovered. Remove from the oven and enjoy!
Tips for Success
Make sure the eggplant is sliced thin enough. If the eggplant is sliced too thick or unevenly, it will cause the rollatini to bake unevenly, leaving some pieces to be tougher and under-cooked. To ensure the eggplant is evenly cut and properly cooked, your best bet is to use a mandoline and slice each at 1/4 inch thickness.
Additional herbs you can use. What makes this recipe shine is using a ton of fresh basil! But that’s not the only herb you can use. This recipe also tastes wonderful with fresh oregano! And even fresh thyme or Italian parsley. If you’d like to add a little heat, you can also toss in a pinch of red pepper flakes to the herb filling too!
Our favorite tomato sauce to use. Choosing a quality tomato sauce for your rollatini matters because it’s a huge source of the dish’s flavor. If you want to use a store-bought tomato sauce, we recommend Raos! But if you want to make your own sauce, we love serving this with our San Marzano tomato sauce, or, our spicy arrabbiata tomato sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do you salt the eggplant? Eggplant is known to have a high water content, so the excess moisture will need to be “sweated” from the eggplant using salt before assembling the dish. If this step is not taken, the water from the eggplant will pour into the whole dish while it bakes, making it a soupy mess, which we want to avoid!
How do you slice eggplant for rollatini? You can cut the eggplant two ways! One by hand with a chef’s knife, this is if you are experienced with a knife and can accurately make precise 1/4 inch cuts. The second way, which I recommend the most, is to use a mandoline slicer.
Do I need to peel the eggplant? Nope! Even though eggplant skin seems tough when it’s uncooked the skin becomes tender and adds so much flavor to this dish once it is cooked.
Is this recipe gluten-free? Yes, it’s naturally gluten-free because it doesn’t use flour or breadcrumbs to coat the eggplant.
How long do leftovers keep? Leftover rollatini should be kept in the refrigerator for about 4-5 days. Make sure leftovers are stored in an air-tight container to keep them fresh.
How to Freeze and Reheat
Reheating tips: preheat oven to 350F, place the rollatini in an oven-safe dish and cover with foil. Heat until warm (about 10-15 minutes).
Freezing tips: Prepare rollatini as directed, but don’t bake. Cover completely with plastic wrap first and then foil. Freeze for up to 1-2 months, then let thaw at room temperature and bake as the recipe instructs.
Serving Suggestions
Eggplant rollatini goes perfectly with pasta! We love to serve it with shells, radiatore pasta, or rigatoni. For greens, we recommend Italian-themed salads such as our Tuscan artichoke salad, or this Italian salad! And don’t forget crusty Italian bread for dipping into that cheesy sauce!
More Italian Eggplant Recipes
Love eggplant as much as I do? Then you may also be a fan of these delicious recipes as well.
- Classic Eggplant Parmesan
- 6 Ingredient Roasted Eggplant Pasta
- Roasted Eggplant Meatballs
- Eggplant lasagna
Eggplant Rollatini
Ingredients
- 2 large eggplants, sliced lengthwise (1/4-inch thick slices)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded plus additional parmesan for dusting over top of the dish
- 1 egg
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 Tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 1/2 cups marinara
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
- fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Slice and salt eggplant: First, remove the stems from the eggplant. Cut eggplant lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Salt on both sides and let sit to "sweat" for 10 minutes. Pat dry with paper towel and wipe off remaining salt. Note: this process removes excess moisture from the eggplant and prevents a watery rollatini.
- Bake eggplant: Lay eggplant on a lightly greased pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool. Note: this softens the eggplant so you can easily roll it with the filling.
- Mix filling together: While eggplant is baking, add to a bowl: ricotta cheese, parmesan, egg, salt & pepper, minced garlic, and fresh basil. Mix together.
- Prepare rollatini: Then spread a layer of half the marinara on the bottom of your casserole or baking dish. After the eggplant has cooled spoon 1-2 Tablespoons of ricotta filling on the eggplant, then roll it up and lay the rollatini in the baking dish with sauce. Repeat until finished.
- Bake: Spoon the remainder of the marinara sauce over the rolled-up eggplant, and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and a light dusting of parmesan cheese. Cover with foil or lid and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Video
This was an excellent recipe! We really enjoyed it!!
Definitely a keeper!
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
so happy you enjoyed it, Jo Ann! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Delicious filling. Didn’t have enough eggplant, so we made zucchini rolls and filled jalapeño poppers with bacon, baked them all together. Wonderful!
Love that you could improvise with the zucchini! So glad you enjoyed it:) Thank you, Cathy!
I can’t get eggplant rollatini in the area we moved to, so this recipe was perfect to meet my homesick for food need. I love how it’s gluten free, doesn’t need breading and frying so both calories and prep were reduced. I did make some modifications: used full container of ricotta, added 1/4 cup mozzarella, 2 Tbls Parmesan and a heaping spoon of homemade pesto instead of the garlic.
Prep time was considerably longer including slicing eggplants, cooling and making rolls – at least double the prep time. Terrific recipe!
in the ingredients listed you have tomato sauce, in instructions ask for marinara sauce.
Thanks Marshall, fixed it 🙂
An easy recipe! And it tasted very good!
My changes.
1. No egg-I forgot, but did not change the outcome too much. My daughter is allergic to eggs so those of you out there who are also allergic you can skip the egg.
2.Used half the parm amount-substituted Pecorino Romano cheese (sic) instead
3. Did not add additional salt due to the amount you use at the start to “sweat” the eggplant.
Glad you could skip the egg, some ricotta’s are creamy enough where you don’t need it 🙂 Love the addition of pecorino, and if you’re using that plus parm, salt shouldn’t be necessary! Thanks so much for sharing!
This was a really good and easy to follow recipe. I’ve cooked with eggplant a few times (ratatouille being a favorite) but this was a first for rollatini. The only change I made was mistakenly using three eggs when I made this recipe 1.5x what it was supposed to be but adding a little more parmesan (I was out of ricotta) remedied things. Thanks for the recipe and I’ll definitely be making it again!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Amanda!! Glad you could fix the extra eggs with more parm – more cheese is never a problem;) Thank you for sharing!!
This was a favorite in our house growing up. my mom grew the herbs & vegetables so we always had fresh traditional ingredients for all her home country’s recipes ! Sometimes we get caught up in whats available fast once we are empty nesters and need to get back to true delicious comfort food made at home, just what I needed for a family meal with my grown children. This is such a simple delicious recipe and always satisfying this brings back happy memories from my childhood as well as when my children were young .You will not be disappointed with this recipe and results!
I love that, Renee. I so agree, homemade meals are a wonderful thing. I’m so glad this recipe was enjoyed and could bring you back to your childhood – how special is that! Thank you for the kind words.
So easy to follow. Thank you Bethany, you made me look good☺️ My husband loved it and said it was definitely restaurant quality 😋
This means so much!! And such a compliment. Thank you so much for sharing:)
I made the eggplant rollatini recipe, using your San Marzano sauce recipe. I cannot find the words to tell you how amazing it was! My son in law, who is 100% Italian ( his parents still live there), said I could qualify as Italian now. My daughter asked me to make it for Christmas dinner! Thank you so much for sharing!!!
June, that makes me so happy to hear!! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 lol love that he said you quality as Italian now. Makes me smile to hear that!
Just finished making this wonderful looking dish. Do I cook it at 400* or 350* ? I know reheating was 350*..I’ll let you know how it turned out!
Hi Karen, the eggplant slices are roasted at 400F and the whole dish is baked at 400F as well! hope you enjoyed it!
Absolutely delicious and easy to put together! Great for a weeknight dinner, but also a great company meal!
So so happy to heaar that, Jennifer! Thank you so much for sharing!
Didn’t change a thing and it was delicious
So happy to hear that, thanks so much Edward!