Italian Ricotta Eggplant Casserole
This Italian Ricotta Eggplant Casserole, a creamy delicious oven baked dish. Filled with a perfectly spiced sautéed eggplant and finished with a creamy ricotta topping. Perfect served as a main dish or even as a side dish.
I guess you can’t get more Italian than eggplants and ricotta cheese. This easy, simple Italian Ricotta Eggplant Bake is a perfect summertime comfort food. Because sometimes we do need some summertime comfort.
Recipe Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Eggplant – 2 medium
- Tomato – 1 large firm but ripe
- Oregano
- Salt
- Basil
- Thyme
- Hot pepper flakes
- Water
- Ricotta – if very watery, then drain in sieve for about 20-30 minutes
- Egg – 1 large
- Parmesan Cheese – freshly grated
Why grate your own Parmesan Cheese?
A couple of reasons it’s better to grate your own. It’s cheaper and it tastes so much better. Packaged cheese tends to have a coating to keep the cheese from sticking together. Not a good thing.
You can grate your own cheese with either a Cheese Grater or by placing chunks in your Food Processor and just pulsing a few times until coarsely ground.
Freshly ground parmesan cheese can be kept in a plastic bag or airtight container and stored in the fridge for up to two weeks. You can also store it in the freezer for up to 18 months.
How to make it
In a medium bowl toss together the diced eggplant and a little salt, let sit, then drain but do not rinse.
In a large frying pan on medium heat add the olive oil, onion and garlic, cook until transparent approximately, add the drained eggplant and water, cook until soft.
Add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt, basil, thyme & hot pepper flakes if using lower heat. Simmer half covered until almost all the water has evaporated.
Pre-heat the oven, lightly grease a medium baking dish. In a small bowl mix together ricotta cheese and egg.
Place filling in the baking dish and top with the ricotta cheese topping, sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Bake for approximately until the ricotta cheese is soft and golden.
So needless to say I rarely cook with ricotta. I make the occasional Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells and a tasty Ricotta and Chocolate Chip Cake recipe that I was lucky enough to get from a friend’s mother. But bake Eggplant and Ricotta as in casserole, nope never, until now.
What is Ricotta cheese?
Ricotta cheese is made from leftover whey from other cheeses, it can be from cow, goat, sheep or Italian Buffalo. Sometimes an acidifier is added.
Ricotta meaning recooked is just that, the recooking of the whey. Since it is not produced from curd, but from whey, ricotta cannot be considered a real cheese. The term ricotta can also mean the fresh one.
More Eggplant recipes
- Italian Breaded Eggplant
- Simple Bucatini and Eggplant
- Italian Eggplant Pie
- Easy Eggplant Parmesan Stacks
I hope you enjoy this Italian Ricotta Eggplant Casserole and you give it a try. Let me know if you do. Buon Appetito!
Italian Ricotta Eggplant Casserole
Ingredients
FILLING
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 medium eggplant diced
- 1 large firm but ripe tomato (seeded and diced)
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
- 1 pinch thyme
- 1-2 pinches hot pepper flakes (optional)
- ¼ cup water
FOR THE TOPPING
- ½ cup ricotta
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- In a medium bowl toss together the diced eggplant and 1/2 teaspoon salt let sit for approximately 20 minutes, drain but do not rinse.
FOR THE FILLING
- In a large frying pan on medium heat add the olive oil, onion and garlic, cook until transparent approximately 3-5 minutes, stirring often, watch that it doesn't burn, add the drained eggplant and water cook until soft, approximately 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt, basil, thyme & hot pepper flakes if using. Lower the heat and simmer half covered for approximately 20-30 minutes until almost all the water has evaporated. Pre-heat oven to 350° (180° celsius), lightly grease 2 small baking dishes or 1 medium.
- Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C), lightly grease a medium baking dish.
FOR THE TOPPING
- In a small bowl mix together ricotta cheese and egg.
- Place filling in the baking dish and top with the ricotta cheese topping, sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until ricotta cheese is soft and golden. Enjoy!
Notes
How to choose the perfect eggplant
It’s best to pick medium to small eggplants they are more tender and contain fewer seeds than the much bigger ones. You are going to find seeds in the eggplant, but no worries you can eat them, just make sure they are white and not black. Black seeds indicate a tougher older vegetable. You can tell if it’s tender and young by its firmness, size, colour and uniformity. The best ones are tender but firm, with smooth, shiny skin. In good condition the stem should be bright green, as it turns brown it becomes less desirable.Is It Necessary To Place The Eggplant Under Salt?
It depends on the eggplant, if the eggplant is young and tender then some people don’t, although it does help make the dish more tender and less bitter, and personally I can always tell the difference. I recommend that you do do it no matter how tender the eggplant may be. In a large bowl toss the sliced eggplant with a little salt, let sit for about 20-30 minutes, then drain, never rinse.How to store the eggplant casserole
The casserole should be stored in the fridge in an airtight container. It will keep for up to 3-4 days in the fridge. I would not recommend freezing as the vegetables can become quite soggy and watery.Nutrition
Updated from June 30, 2015
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I added mozzarella cheese before the ricotta topping. It was absolutely delicious! Thanks for an excellent recipe!
Hi Michelle, great idea! Thanks glad you enjoyed it. Take care.
Great and easy recipe – thank you!
Thanks Lucy, glad you like it. Take care.
I’d like to say, this was extremely easy and oh, so flavorful, yea! , I decided to layer it like Lasagna then covered in ricotta. Doubled the recipe and froze the rest, freeze extremly well, just as flavorful! Thanks
Crystal
Hi Crystal, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed it. Take care.
Oh so easy and yummy!
Hi Becky, thanks so glad you enjoyed it.
The ingredients list has thyme and red pepper flakes but those ingredients are not listed in the instructions. I noticed this towards the end and included them before baking.
Hi Todd, sorry about that, I updated the recipes. Thanks
Superb , full of flavour. I added some extra garlic but I always do!
Can see why it’s a family favourite. Everyone loved it.
Your blog is great, I really like the mini videos and search
Engine showing most visited etc
Hi Ray, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed the recipe and the blog. Take care.
I made this but found it to be extremely bland..I added in more basil than required as well as oregano but didn’t feel like there was a sense of really delicious flavour unfortunately! The cheese topping was delicious but the filling was not very exciting.
I will definitely try this. I love eggplant but I have never cooked it. So I’m willing to try thanks for sharing your recipe . I’m looking forward to more recipes.
Hi Beulah, thanks so much, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know.
Wonderful1 For the sauce, I used Marcella Hazan’s simple sauce (simmer together a can of toatoes, crushed, with their juice; 5 tablespoons of butter, and an onion peeled and cut in half for 45 minutes). I spritzed the crumbs with olive oil spray before baking. And the eggplant took more like an hour to bake. This is a definite keeper!!! (If I have fresh basil next time, I’ll layer in a few leaves.(
Hi Deb, thanks so much, what a great idea, sounds delicious. Have a great weekend.
Thank you so much for this recipy. I just finished dinner. My partner promissed me everything when I allowed him to have an extra portion 🙂
I’m going to try more of your recipies, sonn will be more compliments!
Hi Marina, thanks so much, I am so glad your partner enjoyed it. Let me know what else you try and how it goes! Have a great weekend. 🙂
This looks sooooo good! I’m actually curious about trying your father-in-law’s pasta, lol! Do you add any other seasonings to it- the ricotta with pasta? I love eggplant- they’re so beautiful right now and I’ve been wanting to buy one- this dish sounds perfect! 🙂
Hi Veronica, thank you, apparently my mother-in-law tosses the pasta, with some ricotta and a little bit of olive oil together and that’s it.
I’ve made eggplant parmsean with ricotta and mozzarella. I’ve never diced the eggplant. Definitely trying your recipe. So glad I found you.
Hi Ann, let me know how you enjoy it. So glad you came.
Dear Rose, this sounds and looks wonderfully comforting. A wonderful way to prepare eggplant next time. xo, Catherine
Hi Catherine, thank you.
It looks scrumptious and Italian men can be a little on the stubborn side. If you would have asked my mamma she would have told you that I was just like my papa. But as far as food goes? I like just about anything if it is cooked right except insects or rodents 🙁 I shiver at the thought. I love eggplant and we just don’t make it enough. You’ve inspired to me to grab an eggplant at the Farmers Market. Gracie!