Eggplant and Olive Pizza

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Finally, the warm weather is here and with it comes fresh and vibrant fruits and veggies. I get so excited by the thought of crunchy and juicy produce and imagine bringing them home by the armload and....thats where my daydreaming ends. I'm not a veggie person and haven't the slightest clue what to do with them. A salad? Sure, if all you got is lettuce and tomatoes but what to do with fun things like green beans and eggplant?

Well its no surprise we love pizza around here so this recipe just sounded too goo to pass up. We always have at least one jar of spicy green olives so I used those and only had mozerella on hand, which wasn't a problem either as the star of the show is the eggplant. Take that extra few minutes to grill for an extra smokey taste that's amazing (I sliced mine thin just to speed along the process). I also took the liberty to add a layer or carmalized onions. Go crazy with it, just make sure you go eggplant with it as well!

Grilled Eggplant and Olive Pizza
Adapted from Gourmet, August 2009



1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 pound eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch-thick rounds
1 pound store-bought pizza or homemade pizza dough at room temperature
5 ounces sliced provolone, cut into short thin matchsticks (1 1/4 cups)
Handful pitted green olives, coarsely chopped (1/3 cup)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

To make this pizza on a grill, or in a grill pan: Stir together garlic and oil. Brush some of garlic oil on both sides of eggplant and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Grill over direct medium heat, covered, turning once, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes total. Cut into roughly one-inch pieces and set aside.
Stretch dough into about a 12- by 10-inch rectangle (or into the shape of your grill pan, which in my case, was square) on a large baking sheet or your counter and lightly brush with garlic oil. Oil grill rack, then put dough, oiled side down, on grill. Brush top with more garlic oil. Grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Using tongs, return crust, grilled side up, to baking sheet. Scatter eggplant, cheese, olives, and parsley (whoops, forgot mine) over crust. Slide pizza from sheet onto grill and grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown and cheese is melted, about 3 to 5 minutes. (If you’re using an oven-safe grill pan, you can slide the pan into a preheated 500 degree oven at this point, as we did, which gets the toppings that much more blistered.) Season to taste with salt, pepper and a red pepper flakes.

To make this pizza in the oven: You can either fry or roast the eggplant slices, brushed with garlic oil, until tender. Prepare the pizza as you would any other, rolling or stretching out the dough, mounding on the toppings and sliding it onto a baking sheet or pizza stone in an oven that has been preheated to its top temperature. It will be ready in about 10 minutes.