Eggplant Pizza

Kids and adults alike love pizza, so I try to put many different ingredients onto the dough for all of our enjoyment. My girls like to make pizza and if they help me create the meal, the more likely they will eat it. I highly recommend a dough ball from Sam’s club, because the crust is crispier than other brands. Remember if using Sam’s Club pizza dough allow 6 hours for it to thaw. A dough ball will make one large pizza with a thicker crust or two medium pizzas with thinner crusts. This recipe uses our Roasted Red Pepper Marinara. Please make sure you have the ingredients it calls for or use your own sauce.

Ingredients

1 Sam’s Club pizza dough ball or one from your deli department
1 medium sized eggplant about 10 oz., peeled and thinly sliced
Non-stick cooking spray
Sprinkle of kosher salt
Roasted Red Pepper Marinara or your own sauce
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups of packaged mozzarella cheese, more if you like it cheesier
1/4 cup of pasta flour (semolina)

Technique

Place dough ball in a large bowl coated with non-stick cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap. Allow to thaw and double in size.

Make Roasted Red Pepper Marinara per our recipe. Set aside.

Peel and thinly slice eggplant. Place eggplant slices on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and spray the top of each slice with non-stick spray. Sprinkle with a touch of kosher salt and place into a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Spray 1 large pizza pan or 2 medium sized pizza pans, depending on what you choose to make. Evenly spread pasta flour over cookie sheet or sheets, this is to prevent sticking and to make a crispier crust. Using your hands, flatten and shape dough to desired thickness and size on cookie sheet or sheets. If choosing to make two medium sized pizzas, with a large cookie as opposed to a medium cookie sheet, the dough may not make it to the edge of your pizza cookie sheet. That is fine. Try to make a little makeshift edge with the dough to make sure the sauce does not run off the dough during cooking process. If making one pizza, use all ingredients amounts or divide amounts if making two pizzas. Spread cooked eggplant slices over dough then evenly spread the Roasted Red Pepper Marinara sauce over the top. Using a spoon spread ricotta cheese over the top. It will mix with the marinara sauce and that is okay. Top with the shredded mozzarella. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees on lower rack for 12 – 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown.