
Aubergine and Herbed Ricotta Rolls (Involtini) with Fresh Tomato Sauce
Such a wonderful summer dish! Grilled aubergines filled with herbs and fresh ricotta, rolled and baked in a wonderful homemade tomato and red pepper sauce.
What a treat as the peppers and aubergines are from my own small urban vegetable patch! So chuffed!
Fresh tomato sauce
Skinning tomatoes for a fresh tomato sauce can be a pain so I love the fact that this tomato sauce requires you to literally just throw summers bounty into a pot before blitzing the ingredients into a rich sauce.
The sauce is so versatile so double up and freeze a jar or two.
Quick out-of-season tomato sauce
The sauce relies on overripe and full of flavour summer tomatoes though, but fear not you can create something equally delicious in the colder months with this 15-minute tomato sauce.
A note on ricotta
Ricotta is made from fresh milk, when you heat milk to a certain temperature and add an acid the milk will separate into the whey and curds – ricotta is made from the curds. There are lots of supermarket types of ricotta but we are looking for the chunky fresh one, like this.
Ricotta’s taste is very subtle so please taste and season.
Getting ahead
The dish can be made 2 days ahead, ready to be baked. The dish makes lovely leftovers.
Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter

Aubergine and Herbed Ricotta Rolls (Involtini) with Fresh Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 large and long aubergines thickly sliced
- olive oil salt & pepper
- 1 tub fresh ricotta the firm kind
- zest of lemon & 1 teaspoon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 handfuls of fresh herbs I used basil and flat leaf parsley, chopped
- shaved parmesan to serve
- salt & pepper
Fresh Tomato Sauce
- 1,3 kg wonderfully ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
- 3 red peppers deseeded, roughly chopped
- 3 fat garlic cloves sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 2 handfuls basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a baking tray with baking paper, add the aubergines in a single file and drizzle really well with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes turning the slices once, roast until golden and soft. Remove
- Meanwhile for the tomato sauce, add all the ingredients except the basil to a saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and let the mixture bubble away until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid, turn up the heat and let the tomato sauce bubble for another 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat, add the basil and stir through. Once cooled slightly, add the sauce to a food processor and blitz until smooth. Season with salt & pepper.
- In a bowl or food processor mix the ricotta with the herbs, lemon zest, juice and salt blitz or beat until smooth. Season with salt & pepper and more lemon juice if needed.
- Rolling the aubergines.Add a teaspoon ricotta mixture on the wider end of the aubergine slices and roll up gently, if a slice burst in the middle once rolled, don’t worry about it.
- To assemble the dish, add the tomato sauce to an ovenproof dish. Place rolled aubergine pieces sealed side down in the tomato sauce. Once all the pieces are rolled, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan and pop the dish in oven and bake for 20 minutes until bubbly.
- To serve, add a few basil leaves as a garnish, a twist of pepper and shaved parmesan over the top. Such a stunning dish – ENJOY!