Clockwise from top left: A sweating eggplant piece, fresh tomato sauce, pizza toppings assembled, and the finished product — eggplant pizza!

As you know, I’m all about Julia Child recipes now and here’s an easy, fun one that gets pizza back into my life — Eggplant Pizza. Going low carb means I gave up pizza crust. Well this recipe uses eggplant in place of the carb-loaded bread.

Now we’ve never been huge fans of eggplant. It always tasted a little off to me and my husband. Turns out, you need to use salt to sweat the eggplant before cooking it up. Letting it sit in salt takes out the excess moisture and removes that off-putting taste.

The fun thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much add any seasonings or toppings you’d like. You’re making pizza after all.

I didn’t add much seasoning to the sauce other than fresh basil from my garden. You can add some seasoning like oregano, red pepper, or an Italian blend to the eggplant before baking. It really is up to you.

As for toppings, I used some left over pepperoni slices. Next time I’m thinking mushrooms and bacon.

You just want to slice the eggplant thick enough so it doesn’t go wonky on you during baking. The thinner the slice, the more gooey the eggplant.

Eggplant Pizza
Net Carbs: 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 4
Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1/2 lbs. eggplant, about 9 inches long, cut into 3/4″ rounds
• table salt, to sweat the eggplant pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 Roma tomatoes, finely diced
• 3 tbsp olive oil (2 for rubbing on the eggplant and 1 for the sauce)
• 1 oz pepperoni (optional)
• 1/3 C Parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1/3 C sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded or 3 ounces of fresh mozzarella, cut into flat pieces
• 5 basil leaves, chopped

Direction

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Sweat your eggplant! Place your eggplant pieces on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt to draw out excess liquid from the eggplant. Let eggplant sit for 30 minutes.
• While eggplant is sweating, begin creating your sauce by heating the 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic and sauté until garlic becomes fragrant, about 1 minute. Add in the tomatoes, fresh basil and combine with garlic and bring to a simmer. After a few minutes, turn the heat to low and continue cooking sauce, occasionally stirring.  Note: if you prefer, you can use a can of diced tomatoes. I prefer fresh to canned; Fresh Roma tomatoes contain less sugar (fewer carbs) than canned tomatoes.
• Once liquid has formed on top of the eggplant, use a clean paper towel to wipe off the liquid and excess salt. Place eggplant pieces on a nonstick baking sheet.
• Brush both sides of the eggplant pieces with the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil. Cook eggplant for 20-25 minutes, making sure to check on it while cooking to make sure it doesn’t get soggy.
• While eggplant is cooking, mix together the cheeses (skip this step if you are using fresh mozzarella).
• When eggplant is done, divide the sauce evenly over each disk. Top each with 1 slice of pepperoni and the cheese.
• Turn on broiler to low and place baking sheet back in the oven about 3 inches from heat until cheese melts.
• Remove from oven and serve.