How many times have you seen the Recipe for Mini Pizzas with Eggplants, Tomato, and Cheese? How many times have you said: I’ll make them now and then never did? If it makes you laugh, I have done it a thousand times without exaggeration. So, assuming that many of you who have followed my blog for years already know, until some years ago I didn’t eat eggplants. So all the recipes featuring or even listing eggplant in the ingredient list were skipped by me. Often even replaced with always delightful zucchini! Having made this necessary premise for those of you who have been following me for a short time, let’s move on to talk about this recipe.
The web is full, saturated I’d dare say, of Eggplant Mini Pizzas with Tomatoes, so I thought: how should I make mine? I opened the fridge and found that nice and good tub of fresh spreadable cheese, grabbed a jar of tomato sauce from the pantry, picked some leaves of fresh basil from my plant on the balcony and preheated the oven.
Yes indeed, on a hot late July morning, with 90 degrees Fahrenheit felt, I turned on the oven at 9 in the morning to record the video recipe for the YouTube Channel to later propose to you, my dear readers, in the written and video version indeed. If this is not passion, I don’t know what to call it! A crazy person in a tank top and apron, naturally total black lest I choose light colors, was ready at 9 a.m. for Lights, Camera, Action!
I had a mission to accomplish: bring home a recipe, a video recipe, and consequently a reel of the Baked Eggplant Mini Pizzas with Tomatoes! As you can guess, since you’ve landed here on my cooking blog Le Ricette di Bea, I successfully completed the mission I had set for myself!
Before moving on to the recipe, I want to point out other preparations I’ve made with eggplant, Now I like it, what can I do? Fortunately, it’s been love between me and it. Below I’ll leave you the links, all clickable, that will take you directly to the recipe you chose to read. Please, as always, let me know if you like them and if you try them send photos or tag me in your social profiles!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer, Spring
- Energy 204.62 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 10.85 (g) of which sugars 3.56 (g)
- Proteins 5.14 (g)
- Fat 16.75 (g) of which saturated 0.75 (g)of which unsaturated 0.25 (g)
- Fibers 4.17 (g)
- Sodium 232.25 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Eggplant Mini Pizzas with Tomato
- 2 oval black eggplants (medium-large)
- 1 cup ml tomato sauce
- 5 oz g spreadable cheese (of your choice)
- A few leaves basil (fresh)
- to taste oregano (either fresh or dried)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
Tools to Prepare Mini Pizzas with Eggplants, Tomato, and Cheese
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Baking tray
- 1 Parchment paper
- 1 Oven
- 1 Small bowl
- 2 Teaspoons
- 1 Spoon
Recipe Steps for Mini Pizzas with Eggplants, Tomatoes, and Cheese
The very first thing to do is to preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) with the static mode. I know, I’m crazy to turn on the oven with these temperatures, but new recipes for you don’t generate themselves.
We start preparing the Eggplant Mini Pizzas right from the eggplants themselves. Take the eggplant you’ve chosen, one of those nice big ones. Wash it and then pat it dry. Place it on a wooden cutting board and cut, using a knife, many slices of the same thickness. If you think you can’t do it with a knife, use a mandoline. They will all be the same thickness, but you’ll have to be much more careful with your fingers.
Directly place all the eggplant discs obtained in a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle the eggplants with salt and drizzle with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. For all the steps in this recipe, I always recommend watching the video recipe so you can perform them together with me. Bake the eggplants for about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the tomato that will be used for the second phase of our recipe. Pour the tomato sauce into a small bowl, add salt, pepper, and oregano, in my case dried. Mix the sauce with a spoon and set aside. Take the basil leaves, I pick them directly from my balcony plant which at this time is super green and lush, wash and pat them dry. Also, prepare the spreadable cheese of your choice with two teaspoons.
As soon as the eggplants are ready, place the baking tray on your work surface, being careful because it will be hot. Use the spoon to season the center of each eggplant slice with the tomato sauce we previously seasoned. Then add a few teaspoons of spreadable cheese, I made sure to cut the chunks not too small. Since it’s not a mozzarella, and hence won’t release liquids during the second cooking, I was sure that the cheese wouldn’t melt onto the baking tray. Often I replace spreadable cheese with mozzarella, for heaven’s sake you lose the melting effect, but for sure I don’t waste cheese on the oven tray.
Now all that’s left is to position the basil leaves, sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and bake again for about 10 minutes. The scent you will smell is phenomenal, it will hypnotize you in front of the oven while waiting for them to be ready.
An easy recipe, with few ingredients, two main steps, and the rich side dish is served! I ate them as the main course of my meal along with a nice salad. Feel free to serve it as a second course or as a side dish. Perfect to enjoy cold too, to take to the beach or for lunch at the office indeed.
I just want to remind you that I’m waiting for you every day in the group and on the Facebook fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with lots of easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one! Enjoy your meal!!!
Storage and Variations of the recipe: Mini Pizzas with Eggplants, Tomatoes, and Cheese
We can store the eggplant mini pizzas in a refrigerator container with a lid for about two days. Otherwise, it’s best to freeze them for up to a month. Obviously, in both cases, they must be completely cold. Then they should be reheated in the first case, whereas in the second, besides reheating them, remember to take them out of the freezer at least the night before and place them in the refrigerator to defrost.
Recipe variations: as already indicated, you can replace the spreadable cheese with the more classic mozzarella. You can add tuna, olives, capers, really any other ingredient to further enrich the baked eggplant mini pizzas.
