Recipe - Roasted Tomato Eggplant And Smoked Mozzarella Pizzas

1 md Eggplant; (about 11/2
pounds), cut crosswise into
2 pieces
Three fourths pound Plum tomatoes; halved
2 teaspoon Red wine vinegar
One fourth teaspoon Sugar
4 teaspoon Yellow cornmeal
1 Recipe pizza dough
One half cup Fresh basil leaves; washed
well, spun dry, and chopped
coarse
One fourth pound Smoked mozzarella; grated
coarse (about 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. and very lightly grease a large baking
sheet.

Cut smaller eggplant piece into 1/3inchthick slices. Spread eggplant
slices in one layer on half of baking sheet and season with salt. Put
remaining eggplant half and all but 2 tomato halves on second half of
baking sheet. Roast vegetables in middle of oven 15 minutes or until
eggplant slices are tender, and transfer eggplant slices to a plate. Roast
remaining vegetables 15 minutes more, or until eggplant piece is very
tender. Remove baking sheet from oven and cool vegetables slightly.

Scoop out flesh from eggplant piece into a food processor and puree with
roasted tomatoes and unroasted tomato, vinegar, sugar, and salt to taste.
Sauce and cut or sliced up eggplant may be made 1 day ahead and kept separately,
covered and chilled.

On a work surface sprinkled with 1 teaspoon cornmeal, roll out 1 piece of
dough into a 12 by 6 inch oval and transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with
remaining cornmeal and dough, ending up with 2 ovals on each of 2 baking
sheets.

Increase temperature to 500 degrees F.

Spread sauce on dough ovals, leaving a One half inch border around edge of each
pizza. Arrange eggplant slices on sauce and sprinkle pizzas with basil and
mozzarella.

Bake pizzas in lower and middle thirds of oven 15 minutes, or until crusts
are crisp and pale golden.

Yield: 4 servings

Notes: Recipe courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

Recipe by: Cooking Live Show #CL9076

Posted to MCRecipe Digest by "Angele and Jon Freeman"
jfreeman@comteck.com on Apr 4, 1998