Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Grilled Aubergine, Green Pepper and Chicken Pizza

Photobucket

Life Lessons Learnt.
If Deb of
Smitten Kitchen tells you that it is OK to use grilled aubergine (eggplant) on a pizza, then you do just that.
If
Ria tells you she made a chilli chicken pizza, then you follow suit too.

A year ago, I would have shuddered and ran away in horror instead of trying such new toppings, but this whole pushing-the-envelope-when-it-comes-to-cooking for me (and the whole reason for this blog) has worked wonders with my past inhibitions.
OK, we still haven't overcome shellfish - thats for another day, or possibly lifetime.

So I decided to follow the aforementioned gals lead, and I took my
pizza crust, slathered on my tomato sauce, and decided to layer it with grilled eggplant and bell peppers, some leftover chicken from the previous nights dinner, black olives and liberally threw in with mozzarella cheese.
Oh my.........
Someone, please snap me back from my glorious state of food-induced nirvana. Eggplants - Aubergines!!! Where have you been all these years? Why did I forsake you....

Recipe

1 thin
crust pizza dough
1 qty
pizza tomato sauce
1 medium size aubergine/eggplant - sliced
1 medium size green bell pepper - sliced
1 small tin sliced black olives
1 cup cooked chicken (leftover from previous night dinner, deboned and sliced into bite size pieces)
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 Tbsp olive oil for grilling eggplant

Method
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare pizza crust as
directed. Roll out to fit on a lightly oiled pizza stone. Pinch the edges to form a rim.
2. Spread tomato sauce over pizza crust to form a layer.
3. Bake pizza crust in oven for 20 minutes.
4. In the meantime, sprinkle salt on the eggplant slices, leave in a colander to "sweat". After about 20 minutes,pat dry with paper towels. Grill both sides of the eggplant on a grill pan after sprinkling with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. When both sides of the eggplant slices are browned and cooked, remove from heat.
5. Grill the green pepper lightly in the same grill pan, this should not take too much time, as pepper grills quickly.
6. Assemble toppings on the pizza crust - grilled eggplant slices, grilled pepper slices, chicken, olives and top with mozzarella cheese.
7. Return to oven and bake till cheese melts and toppings are heated through.

5 comments:

Desisoccermom said...

That looks so yummy Z. If I wasn't on my calorie counting mission, I would have made this tonite. But I am still glad I found ur blog. Just followed ur comment thru another blog which one. Will keep coming back to visit.

Ria Mathew said...

Thank you Zaara for the link love! Your pizza looks mighty yummmm!! :)

Anonymous said...

That loosk delicious! Like it would be just the right combination of flavours and textures :) I would be running towards that pizza hehe

Yasmeen said...

Interesting toppings,I'd love to try them for a change :D

Kathy Waldroup said...

This is a wonderful combo. What a treat to surprise my husband with. Thanks for stopping by my site Zaara. Will check back on yours. Thanks Kathy.