Eggplant makes the best gluten-free pizza!
Your kids won’t be able to tell the difference. A sneaky way for your family to eat more veggies!
I get giddy when I can find new foods to make pizza out of. I watched this Italian grandma make cute little eggplant pizzas that looked so adorable. I couldn’t imagine how they wouldn’t get a bit soggy, but by taking the proper roasting steps to dry out the eggplant slices they make a WONDERFUL appetizer. I topped mine with some store-bought marinara sauce, grated mozzarella, cut mini pepperoni slices, and a few leaves of fresh basil. These bake up so great and they can be done a day ahead. I would love to do a build-your-own-pizza night with these bad boys. Bonus because it’s gluten-free and veggie-focused.
The most important part of a successful eggplant pizza is drying out the slices. Cook the slices in a hot oven to dry out each piece. This helps dry out the slices and also gets a good caramelization on the outside, so the eggplant tastes good! Be careful with the salt here. With the marinara sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, you don’t need much salt on the eggplant at all.
When your eggplant slices are ready to build, it’s time to make pizza. First a dollop of marinara. Don’t go too hard on the marinara, this will make your pizza soggy. Serve your slices with warm marinara for a lovely dipping sauce. Finish with cheese then it’s time for toppings.
Now this only cooks for less than 10 minutes, so if you’d like to use sausage or vegetables make sure you cook them ahead of time. I took a mini ring mold and cut the pepperoni slices to make tiny pepperoni and crisped up the scraps in the oven to serve as crispy bites.
I LOVE pizza and this cute little appetizer will not only get your family to try eggplant, but it will also get them excited to see what else they can make pizzas out of, like me!
Eggplant Pizzas
Yield(s): Makes 12 – 16 mini pizzas
10m prep time
22m cook time
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch thin rounds
- 1 bag whole milk low moisture mozzarella
- 1 jar good marinara sauce
- 1 cup sliced pepperoni
- Olive oil, for drizzling
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- Fresh basil, for serving
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 450 ºF and prepare a parchment-lined sheet tray.
- Lighly salt sliced eggplant arranged on sheet tray and let sit for 5 minutes. Brush off excess moisture with a piece of paper towel.
- Drizzle eggplant with olive oil and season with black pepper. Bake for 12 minutes or until the tops of the eggplant start to brown. Flip slices over and cook for 5 additional minutes. Remove from oven to assembly pizzas.
- Dollop each eggplant slice with a tablespoon of sauce, then top with cheese and pepperoni slices. *optional* use a tiny biscuit ring mold to cut the pepperoni into mini slices for a cute end result.
- Bake pizzas for 5 – 7 minutes or until cheese is golden brown. Remove from oven and garnish with fresh basil. Let sit for 5 minutes and enjoy!
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