Eggplant and Tomato Pizzas

Martha Stewart really is one of my favorite food personalities. I think she always focuses on the ingredients and doesn't usually make a recipe so fussy that the star ingredient doesn't shine through. This recipe is one such example.

A good friend of mine was stopping in unexpectedly for dinner, and I didn't have much time to prepare. I had a couple of eggplants and tomatoes from the end of the summer share to use up, and I decided to adapt Martha's Grilled Portobello Pizza recipe for the eggplants and tomatoes. For Valentine's Day this year, Devin got me a stovetop double grill pan, and I am always looking for a chance to use it. Grilling veggies in place of pizza crust is a great way to health-ify pizza without sacrificing flavor!

Veggies grilling away

Ingredients

•                12 cherry tomatoes, quartered (about 1/2 pound)

•                4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

•                2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

•                1 tablespoon Roasted Garlic

•                Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

•                1 eggplant and 2 tomatoes, sliced into ½ slices

•                About ½ of shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (I’ve found that vegetable peelers work great for this)

•                4 very thin slices prosciutto (about 1 ounce)

•                4 tablespoons Rough-Cut Basil Pesto

Directions

1.             Prepare a stove-top griddle or outdoor grill.

2.            Combine the tomatoes, thyme, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, the roasted garlic, and salt and pepper in a small bowl and toss. Set aside.

3.            Brush the top and bottom of each eggplant and tomato slice with the remaining oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until the veggies are tender, about 4 minutes per side for the eggplant and 2 per side for the tomatoes.

4.            After grilling, arrange an equal amount of the tomato mixture each veggie slice. Top each with a shaving of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

5.            Arrange 1/2 slice of prosciutto on each “pizza” and spread 1 tablespoon of the pesto on top of each prosciutto slice.

6.            Enjoy!

Super quick and healthy dinner

Goodbye, Summer...

I’m flipping out excited. After a bad history with faithless laptops, I finally decided I needed something more serious. Something sleek and reliable, something that didn’t have viruses, something I could really trust. Enter: MACBOOKPRO!!! Yeah, I got the iPhone, I’m an app-aholic, and now this. Whatever.

I justified this purchase in several ways.

• My current computer is a piece of sh*t. Literally, my friends mock it. It can barely open Word let alone a YouTube video. I require a machine that works. Because of the issue of my current model barely working, I’ve taken over my fiancé’s machine as often as he will tolerate. He has returned to school, so this is no longer possible.
• I am applying to grad school (again.) I need a workhorse of a machine for applications and essays.
• Hopefully grad school—if I get in, I need a working machine, duh! (This is the major one)
• Netflix—is that shallow? Sorry.
• Wedding planning (ditto to above)
• Photograph storage and sorting
• Music storage
• Being part of normal society

So why is all of this relevant here? Because I now have a real, true, working computer, and I plan to blog a lot more.

Until I can really sit down and get the new machine up to date with all my recent food endeavors, I leave you with a shot of a recent meal made. We visited with some friends on the lake in Meredith, NH and had a fantastically wonderful surf and turf meal. It was a lovely way to spend Labor Day weekend, and the ideal meal to say farewell to summer.

Lobster, grilled eggplant and corn!

The spread

The Gents

The girls, enjoying Arabella and Mike's amazing Stoli Doli

Eggplant Stacks with Mozzarella and Basil Pesto

I've never been a huge eggplant fan. It's not that I have had much of a chance to try any...I guess I just never really considered cooking with them. That is, until our CSA started putting them in our share. I've done a few things now that I have loved with eggplants, and now I seek them out: roasted eggplant spread with tahini, eggplant parms, and now this concoction.

I love that eggplants have a hearty, meaty feeling to them that makes them a good vegetarian main dish. Start with one large eggplant and slice into 3/4 inch disks like so:

Coat each disk in flour, dredge in 2 beaten eggs, and dip in a bread crumb mixture. Lay on parchment paper.

Fry breaded disks in a hot pan with a half inch of olive oil, about 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. With a large eggplant, you will need to do this in batches.  While the eggplant was browning, I mixed together a quick hand-crushed pesto--chopped basil leaves, chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I layered the eggplant stacks like so: eggplant, pesto, mozzarella, tomato, eggplant, pesto, mozzarella. I broiled each stack in the over until the cheese browned. I topped it with a single basil leaf and served it will the potato gratin. A simple, refreshing and pretty summer meal.

Dinner!