Grilled Eggplant, Green Olive, and Provolone Pizza

Sounds like a weird combo. I can't say I'm a huge fan of eggplant, provolone or green olives. But, I've been on a pizza kick lately. It's fun to try different combinations and see what works and what doesn't. While perusing some blogs looking for some recommended recipes, I stumbled upon this combo on the http://www.smittenkitchen.com/ site. While I don't like to eat any of these things individually...I thought maybe a combo of them wouldn't be bad! Mr. Allan loved this pizza..I quite enjoyed it myself. If you're looking for something different from your regular red sauce and cheese pizza..this might be up your alley.

It started off with slicing up an eggplant into 1/2" to 3/4" chunks. I then crushed a clove of garlic and mixed in 1/3 cup of olive oil. I used about half the garlic oil to brush on the eggplant before I through them on the grill and the other half was brushed on the pizza dough

I've been obsessing with this whole wheat pizza crust I found at my local Whole Foods ...the Top This pizza crust

Next up...I shredded some sharp provolone.

Once the eggplant was grilled, I chopped it into chunks and threw it on the pizza

Next up..some fresh chopped parsley and then a handful of chopped green olives 

Fresh out of the oven and still steaming...

Grilled Eggplant and Olive Pizza
from Smitten Kitchen

1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 pound eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch-thick rounds
1 pound store-bought pizza or homemade pizza dough at room temperature
5 ounces sliced provolone, cut into short thin matchsticks (1 1/4 cups)
Handful pitted green olives, coarsely chopped (1/3 cup)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

To make this pizza on a grill, or in a grill pan: Stir together garlic and oil. Brush some of garlic oil on both sides of eggplant and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Grill over direct medium heat, covered, turning once, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes total. Cut into roughly one-inch pieces and set aside.

Stretch dough into about a 12- by 10-inch rectangle (or into the shape of your grill pan, which in my case, was square) on a large baking sheet or your counter and lightly brush with garlic oil. Oil grill rack, then put dough, oiled side down, on grill. Brush top with more garlic oil. Grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Using tongs, return crust, grilled side up, to baking sheet. Scatter eggplant, cheese, olives, and parsley (whoops, forgot mine) over crust. Slide pizza from sheet onto grill and grill, covered, until underside is golden-brown and cheese is melted, about 3 to 5 minutes. (If you’re using an oven-safe grill pan, you can slide the pan into a preheated 500 degree oven at this point, as we did, which gets the toppings that much more blistered.) Season to taste with salt, pepper and a red pepper flakes.

Just a couple notes...

I used a pre baked crust. I grilled the eggplant on my outdoor grill, and then cooked the pizza on my pizza stone in my oven at 450 degrees for 11 minutes (it got cold outside and I took it inside!!)

Also, be sure not to use up all the garlic oil on the eggplant..you need to reserve some to brush on the crust as well!

Here's a link to the post on Smitten Kitchen featuring this pizza recipe! Click HERE

Enjoy!