Yes You Pan!

Pizza in Padella con Melanzane, Peperone, Pomodorini & Ricotta Salata

Frying Pan Pizza with Eggplant, Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes & Salted Ricotta

Another pizza in the frying pan from yours truly! And you can hate me if you will- but these quick-fixes after a long day at work sure make sense for a singleton such as I!

Sure- the dough came from the supermarket- but the rest I put together myself and I promise you- it was better than any carry out you can get here in Frankfurt and that's for sure!

I love eggplant- probably more than I love pizza to be honest- haha! So I wanted to try a different way of getting lots of eggplant flavor onto my pizza topping, without having big slices that are either too greasy as they sometimes are at the pizzerias, because they are fried, or too rubbery, which also often happens... and so... I did THIS instead!

For one gorgeous pizza, I needed a roll of dough, of course, 1 medium eggplant, 1 mild pointed pepper, 9-10 cherry tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of tomato purée, fresh parsley and basil, salt, pepper, salted ricotta, dried oregano and olive oil.

This was done from start to finish in less than an hour and wonderfully flavorful with lovely fresh topping- and such a great Sicilian flavor that I am sure you will also love.

I started off by cutting a few super-thin slices of eggplant and frying them in just a hint of olive oil for 2-3 minutes- I then set these aside to add decoratively on top later. 

I also added about 1/2 of the pepper, cut into thin slices and gave that a stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, to get it partly cooked in advance. This too got set to one side to use for the topping later.

I then fried the remaining eggplant and pepper, finely chopped, along with half of the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and a good pinch of chopped basil and parsley. I seasoned with salt and pepper and fried for 3-4 minutes until the eggplant became soft and began to brown slightly.

Once the eggplant was soft, I added the tomato purée, fried it for 1-2 minutes with the eggplant, then deglazed the frying pan with a splash of water and stirred everything together well.

I then added more water, little by little, until the tomato purée turned into a sauce and boiled it through for 5-6 minutes at a high heat until it reduced down. 

I then set it to one side to cool, turned on the oven to the highest setting to heat up... and rinsed out my frying pan, ready to use again to make my pizza!

I spread out the dough into the pan and then spooned the tomato and eggplant sauce generously on top.

I then added the pepper rings, the remaining tomatoes cut into very thin slices and a generous sprinkle of dried oregano.

Last but not least came a generous grating of salted ricotta, plenty of freshly ground pepper- and then onto the stove top it went for 4-5 minutes, to begin "baking" from below, with direct heat to the base... I always do it this way- it is the best trick ever for pizza at home!

And then, off it went, into a very hot oven, at least 120°C, for 10-15 minutes until gloriously golden brown!

A little fresh basil right at the end so that it doesn't suffer in the heat of the oven gives a final blast of color and flavor... and then you are ready to slice and serve and enjoy!