Aubergine rollatini

Aubergine rollatini

30 min
Easy, delicious, and fast, these stuffed aubergine rollatini with goat cheese and olives makes for one tasty iftar dish. These cheesy roll-ups may be enjoyed as a delicious starter, a side dish to chicken, or a main dish if served with bread or a side salad. The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you are expecting many guests. When served with a classic tomato sauce with cream, making these cheesy, fried aubergine rollatini is quite simple.
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Instructions

Step 1
  • Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
  • Finely chop the garlic and the onion and cook until soft, for about 1 minute. Reduce heat and cook until golden, about 3 to 5 minutes.
  • Add tomato sauce with cream and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Cool and then pour into a 22x33 cm baking dish.
Step 2
  • Cut the aubergine lengthwise into 1.5 cm slices.
  • Coat a grill pan with oil and grill the aubergines until golden on both sides, about 15 minutes.
Step 3
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  • In a bowl, finely chop olives and parsley. Then mix with the goat cheese. Save some parsley for garnish.
  • Place 1 tablespoon of filling at the end of each aubergine slice and roll it.
  • Top with grated mozzarella cheese.
Step 4
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.
Enjoy!
Tips

By far the simplest way to slice aubergine for rollatini to ensure equally thick slices is to use a mandolin. This piece of cooking equipment makes slicing vegetables incredibly easy and most models allow you to change its settings so you can ensure 1.5 cm slices. Without a mandolin, start by cutting off the tops and bottoms of the aubergines, so you can balance them as you cut lengthwise from top to bottom. Use a sharp knife and make sure to be mindful of where you place your fingers.

Questions about aubergine rollatini

Use our easy recipe for aubergine rollatini to serve a tasty Italian classic this Ramadan. To learn more about it, read our answers to the most frequently asked questions below.

What is aubergine rollatini?
Aubergine rollatini is a classic Italian dish. Originally from the Southern region of Puglia, it has become popular across the globe. The dish consists of stuffed, rolled aubergines with a seasoned cheese filling. The filling is usually made with ricotta, goat cheese, and flavoured with fresh herbs like basil and parsley. The roll-ups are baked and served with a tasty tomato sauce. Funnily enough, 'rollatini' is not actually an Italian word, and in Italy, these savoury treats are, as such, known as involtini, loosely translated to ‘stuffed rolls’.
How to make aubergine rollatini?
Easy aubergine rollatini will be a wonderful addition to your iftar menu this Ramadan. To make them, cook the creamy tomato sauce with garlic and slice and fry the aubergines on a grill pan until they are golden. Stuff them with homemade goat cheese, green olive, and parsley filling. Pour the sauce into a baking dish, place the roll-ups in the sauce, sprinkle with shredded mozzarella, and bake until perfectly golden. Enjoy the stuffed aubergine rollatini while they are still warm.
What to serve with aubergine rollatini?
Aubergine rollatini are delicious as a light meal or starter on their own, but you can also serve them with side dishes to make it a complete meal. They make for a magnificent combination of flavours with the rich savouriness of the goat cheese filling perfectly balanced by the slightly sweet and tangy, creamy sauce, and served with, for example, toasted bread or garlic bread, you can soak up all of these flavours and get a more filling meal. They are also delicious when served with grilled chicken or a light green salad.
Can I make aubergine rollatini ahead of time?
Yes! To make aubergine rollatini ahead of time, we suggest refrigerating them after topping them with mozzarella cheese and before baking. This allows you to serve them warm and fresh when you are ready to enjoy them. They can also be frozen instead of refrigerated at this step. Cover the freezer-safe and oven-proof dish with cling film and place it in the freezer. When you are ready to enjoy it, you can thaw it overnight and bake it until hot and bubbly. You can, of course, also freeze or refrigerate any leftovers. In the freezer, they will last for 2-4 months, while it will last for 4 days in the fridge.

Ingredients

Tomato sauce with cream
500 ml
Grated mozzarella cheese
225 g
Oil
2 tbsp
Onions
50 g
Garlic cloves
4
Aubergines
2
Goat cheese
125 g
Pitted green olives
4
Fresh parsley
2 tbsp
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Aubergine rollatini in tomato sauce

Cheesy, soft, and flavourful, our aubergine rollatini are the perfect combination of simple yet elegant ingredients combined into an Italian-style light meal or side dish. The aubergine slices that encase the cheesy filling are meltingly tender. After being fried, using them to create these tasty, stuffed rolls becomes incredibly easy. Aubergines are naturally quite mild tasting with a slight vegetable sweetness, but they are great at soaking up flavour from whatever you cook them with. As such, they will be infused with the flavours of the goat cheese and olive filling as well as the garlic-flavoured tomato sauce they are baked in. This vibrant sauce with sweet-tangy tomatoes is deliciously savoury and creamy, making for the perfect base for these aubergine rollatini.

Stuffed with goat cheese and green olive filling

Reading about the savoury filling of these aubergine rollatini is sure to make your mouth water. The creamy texture of this stuffing is owed to the goat cheese. This soft and crumbly cheese has a characteristically buttery, tart flavour that makes it perfect for dishes like this.

Flavoured with green olives and fresh parsley, its richness is perfectly balanced. The olives provide plenty of tanginess and salt, while the fresh parsley gives the homemade aubergine rollatini with goat cheese a wonderful peppery quality that keeps their flavour fresh.

Quick and easy aubergine rollatini baked and browned in the oven

A creamy, mild cheese like mozzarella is perfect for sprinkling on top of aubergine rollatini before you pop them in the oven. The shredded cheese, which melts very well, creates a melty top layer of gooey richness. When browned in the oven, the upper part of the mozzarella may even form a slightly crispy crust that works as a beautiful contrast to the soft goat cheese filling and the creamy tomato sauce.

For more delicious, cheesy dishes have a look at our recipes for cheese sambousek, one pot lasagna, and chicken kofta with cheese.

Experiment with a classic breaded aubergine rollatini

A traditional, Italian aubergine rollatini recipe will instruct you to bread the aubergine slices and, of course, you can try this method out in our recipe, too. You get an incredibly tasty result by dusting the slices with flour before dipping them in a beaten egg and then a breadcrumb mixture. You can easily make homemade breadcrumbs with crumbled bread, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and garlic. As a bonus, a breading with these ingredients will mirror the flavour profile of the dish.

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