Roasted eggplant filled with a zesty, creamy ricotta filling baked in a rich tomato sauce with a fresh side salad – Al fresco dining at its best.
This Week
2 Dec - 8 Dec
Meal Prep Guide
Pre-roast the eggplant.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan bake. Slice three eggplants as thin as you can lengthways. Pop on a baking tray (you’ll need 2-3 trays with this amount of eggplant) and sprinkle over salt and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Pop in the oven to roast for 30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool and transfer into an airtight container in the fridge.
Make the tomato sauce.
Ingredients:
- Tomato passata 690g
- 1 brown onion (finely diced)
- 3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil to a medium size pan over a medium heat and add the onion, garlic and oregano. Cook for 5 minutes or so until the onions have softened.
- Add the tomato passata, bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool and then transfer into an airtight container in the fridge.
Tips
Tips
- We roasted the eggplant in the oven first but if you have a BBQ it’s super easy to grill the eggplant with some olive oil for 4-5 minutes on either side.
- Serve alongside some crusty sourdough bread to mop up the tomato sauce.
- If you’ve got a hungry household to feed you can serve this alongside our, Honey Mustard Chicken Skewers, Lemon Oregano Roasted Chicken Thighs or even our Zesty Pan-Fried Fish with Crispy Capers
Shortcuts
- The involtini filling is also delicious with 150g ricotta, 100g of soft goats cheese and ½ cup of parmesan.
- Add breadcrumbs for a delicious crunchy topping.
- Finely dice one red capsicum and one small zucchini and add to the sauce with the onions for some extra veggies.
Ingredients
- 3 large eggplants
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- 690g tomato passata
- 1 brown onion (finely diced)
- 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 250g ricotta
- 1 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1 lemon (zest and juice)
- ½ cup of basil
- 120g mixed lettuce (1 bag)
- ¼ cup of olives
- ⅓ cucumber (sliced into half moons)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan bake. Slice the eggplant very finely (0.5cm) lengthways. Pop on a baking tray (you’ll need 2-3 trays with this amount of eggplant), season with salt and drizzle generously with olive oil.
- Place into the oven to roast for 30 minutes until golden brown.
- In the meantime, you can make the tomato sauce. Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil to a medium size pan over medium-heat and add the onion, garlic and oregano. Cook for 5 minutes or so until the onions have softened.
- Add the tomato passata, bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for the remaining time that the eggplants are cooking, 15 minutes or so.
- In the meantime, make the ricotta, parmesan mixture. In a small bowl combine the zest and juice of one lemon , ricotta, half of the parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
- Once the eggplant has cooked, allow to cool slightly and then you can roll up the involtini. Add about a small tablespoon of the ricotta mixture to the widest part of the roasted eggplant slice and then roll, repeat until you’ve used all the eggplant.
- Add the tomato sauce to the base of an ovenproof dish. The one we use is 26cm. Nestle in the rolls of filled eggplant. Sprinkle over the rest of the parmesan and pop back in the oven for 20 minutes.
- While the involtini is cooking, assemble the salad, add the lettuce, cucumber and olives to a large salad bowl or platter, drizzle over the red wine vinegar and olive oil and toss well.
- Once the involtini has cooked, sprinkle over the basil leaves. Serve the eggplant involtini alongside the salad and enjoy!
Variations
- The involtini filling is also delicious with 150g ricotta, 100g of soft goats cheese and ½ cup of parmesan.
- Add breadcrumbs for a delicious crunchy topping.
- Finely dice one red capsicum and one small zucchini and add to the sauce with the onions for some extra veggies.
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