Roman pizza with eggplant parmigiana

Everybody loves a good eggplant parmigiana. This is a homage to that great dish, albeit in the shape of a Roman pizza.

Credit: Murdoch Books / © Bree Hutchins

• makes

  8

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of Roman-style pizza dough, pre cooked and cut into 8 squares (recipe and cooking instructions here)
• 8 slices of fior di latte mozzarella 
• 16 slices of smoked scamorza cheese
• 8 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp shaved parmesan cheese
• 24 confit tomatoes (Stefano makes his own but you could use semi-dried tomatoes or fresh tomato instead)
• 8 sprigs of fresh basil

San Marzano sauce

• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 650 g (1 lb 7 oz/2½ cups) tinned San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes, puréed
• 25 g (1 oz/½ cup) fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Eggplant 

• ½ eggplant (aubergine), trimmed and cut into 3 mm (¹⁄₈ inch) slices
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

For the eggplant

Season all the eggplant, add a little extra virgin olive oil and chargrill for about 30 seconds on each side until tender. 

For the San Marzano sauce

Heat the olive oil in a pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until transparent. Add the tomato and basil. Season with a couple of pinches of salt and a little pepper. Stir well and simmer slowly until the sauce thickens and most of the water has evaporated. Depending on the tomatoes, this should take 10–15 minutes. Any extra tomato sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 5–6 days.

To assemble

Cut each pizza square in half, opening it to form a ‘sandwich’. Place the halves on a baking tray. On the bottom half of each place one slice of mozzarella and two slices of scamorza. Heat in a preheated 180°C (350°F) oven for 4–5 minutes until they are crisp on the outside but soft in the middle and the cheese has melted. Once ready, remove from the oven and on each bottom half place three pieces of chargrilled eggplant, 2 tablespoons San Marzano sauce and a tablespoon of grated parmesan. Close each with the top half of the pizza square and finish with some shaved parmesan, three confit tomatoes and a sprig of basil. 

Recipe from New Pizza by Stefano Manfredi, Murdoch Books, hb, $39.99. Photography © Bree Hutchins.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.