Eggplant Pizza

I'm on a roll with these recipes... today I want to share my method for making veggie pizza, and this most recent one happened to be an eggplant pizza. The great thing about pizza is that it can be a canvas for whatever you need to use up!

I found one recipe online that suggested broiling the eggplant first - this helped cook it a bit and make it soft enough to bite into when eating it on the pizza - just brush with olive oil and sprinkle on salt, then broil for a few minutes on each side.

Next, it was time to spread out the dough. I used to make my own pizza crust, but I just started buying a frozen ball of dough at the grocery store and honestly, it tastes just as good and it's definitely easier. It was even easier than usual to stretch and spread the dough - I think leaving it out for a couple of hours (at room temperature) may have helped. My pizzas are rarely perfectly shaped - I just solve this problem by calling it "artisan" pizza. See? No worries! 

I spread a somewhat thin layer of sauce on the dough, then sprinkle chopped up garlic and red pepper flakes on top. On this pizza, I also added some grape tomatoes I needed to use up, and put a few pieces of eggplant under the cheese before sprinkling the cheese on top, followed by the rest of the eggplant. Also, in case anyone actually uses this as a recipe, I put a layer of Crisco on the baking sheet before pressing out the dough.

Ready to go in the oven! 

I cooked it at 370 or so, and 20 minutes later, it looked like this - yum!