{"id":909,"date":"2012-04-17T15:53:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T19:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/2012\/04\/17\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/"},"modified":"2012-04-17T15:53:39","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T19:53:39","slug":"roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Roasted Seasoned Eggplant Pizza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thick Sliced Japanese Eggplant<\/p><\/div>I remember standing in line late one night, or rather early one morning on New Years Eve, down in Hermosa Beach at one of our favorite local NY Style Pizza by the slice establishments called Paisanos<\/em>.\u00a0 I always used to joke with my wife and friends when one of the owners would call out to someone “Hey Paisano!”\u00a0 I would say, “I thought I was Paisano!”\u00a0 When they showed up a few years back, when I was a younger man, I would more often than not find myself wandering by, looking for a slice or two after being out for the night…if you know what I mean.\u00a0\u00a0 It was nice to have the added ambiance in this NY Style pizzeria here only a block off the beach in Southern California

Lightly breaded and seasoned with only a little olive oil…<\/p><\/div> that came with a cast of NY Paisanos who felt at home barking out their indignant proclamations with their freshly imported NY Style attitudes. On this fateful New Years morning I placed my order for my favorite pizza — their Roasted Eggplant and Sliced Tomato Pie.<\/p>\n

Well, it turned out to be the LAST pizza of the night. (I already mentioned that it was late!)\u00a0 I think we alll know how good a late night slice of pizza can taste.\u00a0 Now imagine it’s the last late night pizza available and there’s a line out the door behind you.\u00a0 My small group of friends formed a wedge as we moved out the door and ran for our lives to catch a cab home!<\/p>\n

Pinch off chunks of the Fresh Mozz and spread the roasted eggplant across the pizza.<\/p><\/div>Yes, that last pizza of the night did hit the spot!\u00a0 Perhaps this why I love eggplant on pizza so much.\u00a0 I loved it before this, but since then, there is a more solid connection with the triumphant memory of being the “one” who won the lottery that night with this simple ingredient.\u00a0 I was recently in our forum looking around and found a discussion where eggplant came up.\u00a0 It hit me like a ton of bricks!\u00a0 I couldn’t believe I had I waited so long to play with this ingredient in my pizza making at home.\u00a0 My Paisano memories came flooding back and I knew I had to pick up some eggplant! <\/p>\n

To the kitchen!<\/p>\n

Looks good already!<\/p><\/div>Roasted Seasoned Eggplant Pizza<\/h2>\n

Pizza Quest Signature Beer Dough *LINK<\/a>
Simply Red Tomatoes turned into Peter’s Crushed Tomato Sauce
*Any quality canned tomato will work *LINK
<\/a>Fresh Mozzarella *I used Bel Gioioso’s
1 Japanese Eggplant sliced about 1\/4″ thick
Sliced Tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil<\/p>\n

*You can\/should also add grated Parmesan cheese and Red Chilli flakes at the end.<\/p>\n

A few sliced tomatoes to roast while baking.<\/p><\/div>Peter’s Crushed Tomato Sauce is a perfect pizza sauce. Once you make it a few times following his recipe, you can start to do it on your own, just adding what feels right.\u00a0 This is so simple and tastes so fresh I really don’t see any reason to do anything else when I’m using a tomato sauce.\u00a0 When I first tried it after reading Peter’s book, American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza,<\/em> I literally thought, “This is it! This is the perfect pizza sauce.”\u00a0 Now I know perfect is not possible, but this may be an exception.<\/p>\n

Roast the Eggplant:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s a nice balance of ingredients.<\/p><\/div>Get your oven going early, to Pre-Heat your pizza stone to the highest temperature, for at least an hour before cooking your pizzas.\u00a0 I threw the eggplant into the oven while it was heating up to pre-roast it.<\/p>\n

Peel the skin off the eggplant and slice into 1\/4″ slices.
In a bowl mix the slices with Bread Crumbs and add in some herbs and spices to give them that special touch.\u00a0 I poured a little Olive Oil and then added some Oregano, Basil, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper and actually a little Cayenne because I’m insane.\u00a0 You’ll see I didn’t overdo it in the photos.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I pre-roasted them until browned, pulling them out of the oven in time to allow them to finish up on the pizza (but they do need to soft when you pull them out).\u00a0 I didn’t time this, but think it was about 20 minutes as my oven was already hot.\u00a0 Check it after 10, 15 etc.<\/p>\n

The Prep and Build:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The eggplant is moist and still has some nice charred crispy edges.<\/p><\/div>Build the pizza by placing the Crushed Tomato Sauce on the dough.<\/p>\n

I added a swirl of Olive Oil to the sauce<\/p>\n

Add pinches of the fresh Mozzaarella<\/p>\n

Add the Roasted Eggplant<\/p>\n

Add sliced\/chopped basil after the bake.<\/p>\n

Add the sliced tomatoes (Play with the thickness of the tomatoes to affect how much moisture they will hold after baking, but a scant 1\/4″ thick is probably ideal).<\/p>\n

Bake<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Finish with fresh basil, and maybe some chilli flakes and a little grated Parmesan.<\/p><\/div>Place pizza into the oven.\u00a0 If you have it, switch the oven over to Convection Bake, which seems to give me a better bake.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Check the pizza in about 7 Minutes.\u00a0 When it’s done, remove it.<\/p>\n

This pizza came out beautifully.\u00a0 I used a thicker cut on my tomatoes, so the overall pizza, was initially “wet”.\u00a0 But, as it cooled, it settled down.\u00a0 I added the basil, sliced it up and remembered a simpler time, before kids, late one evening, walking down the street with some friends and a piping hot Roasted Eggplant Pizza from Paisanos.<\/p>\n

(*The cayenne was interesting.\u00a0 Play with the seasoning on the eggplant, it’s a great vehicle for flavor.\u00a0 With the bread crumbs and pre-roasting you also get a little crunchy texture going on after the final bake and even some charred crispy bits.)<\/p>\n

Give this a try and send us your own versions with photos and a story!<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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I remember standing in line late one night, or rather early one morning on New Years Eve, down in Hermosa Beach at one of our favorite local NY Style Pizza by the slice establishments called Paisanos.\u00a0 I always used to joke with my wife and friends when one of the owners would call out to someone “Hey Paisano!”\u00a0 I would say, “I thought I was Paisano!”\u00a0 When they showed up…Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":351,"featured_media":901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c59-written-recipes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRoasted Seasoned Eggplant Pizza - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Roasted Seasoned Eggplant Pizza - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I remember standing in line late one night, or rather early one morning on New Years Eve, down in Hermosa Beach at one of our favorite local NY Style Pizza by the slice establishments called Paisanos.\u00a0 I always used to joke with my wife and friends when one of the owners would call out to someone “Hey Paisano!”\u00a0 I would say, “I thought I was Paisano!”\u00a0 When they showed up...Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PizzaQuestFornoBravo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-17T19:53:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/04\/_mg_1131.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad English\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brad English\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/roasted-seasoned-eggplant-pizza-2\/\",\"name\":\"Roasted Seasoned Eggplant Pizza - 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He has been in the business for over 24 years working on a wide range of projects that have taken him all over the country and to many parts of the globe. He loves to travel and cook for his friends and family. He discovered Peter Reinhart one day while searching the internet to find a way to make a better pizza crust and bought Peter\u2019s book: \u201cAmerican Pie, My Search for the Perfect Pizza\u201d. \u201cAs I read the opening section of the book called, \u201cThe Hunt,\u201d I knew right away that this had to be a show. I was actually jealous as I read about Peter traveling around the world going to all these amazing pizzerias and getting behind the scenes with the pizzaiolos!\u201d Within a few days he had contacted his friend, fellow producer, and fierce Competitive Restaurant Ordering rival, Jeff Michael. 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