• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Cut the tops and bottoms off the eggplants and thinly slice them lengthwise. Drizzle them with the olive oil and sprinkle with the sea salt. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until soft.
  2 round eggplants, olive oil, a generous pinch of sea salt
• While the eggplants are roasting, prepare the rest of the meal. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add all the other tomato sauce ingredients and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gently simmer.
  1 tablespoon olive oil, 3 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon sea salt, a large pinch of red pepper flakes, 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• In a medium-sized bowl, stir all the ricotta filling ingredients together.
  1 cup whole milk ricotta, ½ cup grated parmesan, Juice from 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, Sea salt and pepper

To assemble the easy eggplant involtini:

• When the eggplants come out of the oven, set them aside to cool for a minute. (Keep the oven on.) Pour the tomato sauce into an oven proof baking dish.
• Divide the ricotta filling between the eggplant slices, heaping the filling on the wide end of the eggplant, and top with the basil. Carefully roll the eggplant around the filling and place, seam-side down, in the tomato sauce in the baking dish.
  ½ cup basil
• Sprinkle the parmesan over the top and bake in the oven until bubbly, about 15 minutes. Serve with extra parmesan and some basil sprinkled over the top.
  ½ cup grated parmesan