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.
Eggplant Involtini with a Simple Garden Salad
- 1 hour +
- 4
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Ingredients
Eggplant Involtini
- 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
Side Salad
- 120g mixed lettuce (1 bag)
- ¼ cup of olives
- ⅓ cucumber (sliced into half moons)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey or maple syrup
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, and 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 it 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. Add the olive oil, vinegar, mustard and honey to a glass jar and shake well to combine. Drizzle over the salad and toss well to combine.
- Once the involtini has cooked, sprinkle over the basil leaves. Serve alongside the salad and enjoy!
Variations
Variations
