And it's summer! Tons of delicious fresh veggies to be had. I was recently looking for recipes to use up the copious amounts of eggplant I was getting from my friend Laura's garden while I was caring for it, and came upon a marvelous recipe. But I've pieced together a couple recipes for this pizza.
I made this pizza after I came home from work on a weekday (getting home around 5:30 pm), and was eating by 7:00.
Are two recipes too much for one blog post? Probably, but I'm going to do it anyway.
I was inspired by:
This recipe: Grilled eggplant and olive pizza by smitten kitchen
What I changed: I added a bit more yeast to the pizza dough so it would rise faster, I added oven dried tomatoes (add link to your post about oven dried tomatoes) to the base, and did not add olives (I didn't have any, and I wanted the eggplant alone to shine!)
PIZZA DOUGH: really simple homemade pizza dough
- 1.5 all purpose flour (Deb at smitten kitchen says you can replace up to half of this with wheat flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup warm water (~110 degrees F)
- 1.25 tsp yeast
I used my bread maker to make this dough: why? Because my bread maker makes fewer dishes. But if you don't have one, this is how to make the pizza dough.
ONE:
Sprinkle the yeast on top of the warm water (110 degrees). This helps it wake up and be as excited for pizza dough as you are! Let it sit for 5 minutes.
TWO:
Whisk together the flour and salt, add in the water and yeast mixture. Combine until the ingredients begin to form a ball. Empty the contents of your bowl onto a well floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is springy (this means the gluten is well formed). Put in a a well oiled bowl - flip the dough over so all sides are coated with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap/foil/a towel until the dough has doubled (30- 45 minutes in this case. Thanks extra yeast!).*
*extra tip - if you find your kitchen is cold, or your dough isn't rising as fast as you like, you can heat up your oven a bit and put your bowl in there! I usually turn it up to ~200 degrees, let the oven heat up for just a couple minutes, turn the oven off, then pop my bowl in. You don't want it too hot because it could cause your dough to overproof or even start baking! haha And yes, if you're asking, I have forgotten to turn the oven off before.
OK - while your pizza dough is rising, time to deal with the eggplant!
EGGPLANT PIZZA: keep in mind that the original recipe was made on the grill, but we're making ours in the oven, so we're going to use less olive oil than Deb at smitten kitchen.
From your jar of oven dried tomatoes:
For the base*
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 T olive oil
- 3 T oven dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup flat-leafed parsley
- 1 pound pizza dough (we already made ours! This recipe calls to make 1.5 as much dough as we made, but I found for a 13" crust, the amount we already made is perfect!)
- 1.25 lbs eggplant (or two small garden eggplants)
- 5 oz provolone, cut into short thin matchsticks (I used 5 slices... is that the same?)
*If you haven't made the oven dried tomatoes, feel free to just use 1-2 cloves of raw minced garlic and regular olive oil. Still comes out super noms!
ONE:
Cut the eggplant into 1/2" thick coins. Arrange these on a paper towel and sprinkle them all with salt. This forces the eggplant coins to give up their extra moisture! Wait 15 minutes, then take another paper towel and squeeze the moisture out of the eggplant. Do the same for the other side, again waiting for 15 minutes. Using some spray olive oil, pan fry these coins until browned (at this point don't add any more salt). This should take 5-7 minutes per side on a medium to low flame.
TWO:
At this point, your pizza dough is ready. Pre-heat your oven to as high as it'll go. You won't burn your pizza, I promise! Spread a dash of cornmeal over your baking surface - I just use a round pizza pan, not a pizza stone or anything. Plop your pizza dough down on this and spray your knuckles with some olive oil and start pressing it out to meet the sides of your pan. Push from the middle out towards the edges of the pan. When it measures roughly 13", you're good!
Now, some of you might say, but DANI, you didn't spin the dough in the air and then put it on a pre-heated pizza stone? No, no I didn't. For me in my life right now, all that's too fussy. Plus, in the texture and taste of the dough, I don't think it's necessary!
THREE:
Take 1-2 cloves of garlic from your jar of oven dried tomatoes and mince them. Chop 3 T of the oven dried tomatoes, and sprinkle the garlic, tomatoes, and 3 T of the olive oil from the jar on base of the pizza dough. Again, if you don't want to make these oven dried tomatoes, feel free to use 1-2 cloves of raw minced garlic, and 3 T of olive oil. Chop up the parsley and sprinkle on top of what you've got.
Then pile on the eggplant!!
Then pile on the provolone:
Then throw the whole thing into the oven! It will only take 7-10 minutes for the cheese to melt and the crust to bake. If at the end of this time the crust or cheese isn't browned enough for you, turn the broil on high - but only for a minute or two tops!! You definitely don't want to burn the delicious creation at this point, when you're so close to the end! And if you're wondering, yes, I have done this before.
Let it cool on a cooling rack after, so the crust doesn't get soggy.
Now it's time to eat!
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