Roasted Vegetable and Gorgonzola Pizza with Home Made Dough

This recipe was inspired by the beautiful eggplant that has been begging me to be used for the past few days.  Much to my (and my husband's) delight, this pizza turned out EXCELLENTLY!  This was the first time I made a sauce-less pizza; instead of sauce, I made some garlic-infused olive oil, which is a trick I will definitely use again. The combination of roasted eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes with pungent Gorgonzola cheese and roasted garlic was exactly what I needed this Sunday afternoon.  I hope you find it enjoyable too!  Next up:  nap.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough (makes two thin crust pizzas, or one thick crust)

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 cup very warm water

Pizza

1 pizza dough
1 medium eggplant
1 medium zuchinni
2-3 tomatoes
2 oz gorgonzola cheese
3 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup medium-chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Pizza Dough

note: This takes about 2-3 hours total time and is very easy.  Since it requires some prep time, I usually save this for the weekends, dividing the resulting dough in half to make another thin-crust pizza later in the week.

In a small container, combine warm water, active dry yeast, and sugar; stir until dissolved.  Keep in a warm place at least 15 minutes. Put flour in a large bowl.  Add water mixture, and stir with a fork until combined.  Turn out onto a lightly floured counter and kneed until dough is formed.  Wash and dry bowl, and coat with olive oil.  Place dough in bowl, lightly coat with oil, cover with a damp dish towel, and place somewhere warm for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.  Punch down, turn onto a lightly floured surface, and kneed.  Divide in half for a thin-crust pizza, wrapping extra crust in plastic wrap and storing in fridge for a few days.  Roll out crust immediately before use.

Pizza

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel eggplant, remove top, and slice very thinly lengthwise.  Slice zuchinni lengthwise as well.  Place sliced veggies on baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Mix veggies around to coat.  Slice tomatos thinly, and place in separate baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Roast veggies and 2-3 cloves garlic (unpeeled) for 10-15 minutes, until well cooked.  Remove from oven.

Take roasted garlic, and mash with fork in a small pot.  Add olive oil, and put over low heat for 5-10 minutes to infuse oil with garlic.  Roll out pizza dough to the size of the baking sheet you will use.  Lightly oil baking sheet, and fit rolled out dough.  Pierce dough lightly with fork.  Drizzle garlic-infused olive oil all over the crust.  Top with roasted veggies, followed by crumbled gorgonzola.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Bake for 7-10 minutes, until dough is cooked through and browned on the edges.

Optional: While the pizza was baking, I cooked some walnuts in the residual garlic-infused olive oil remaining in the pan.  I topped the pizza with these after the pizza was finished cooking.  It was a really nice addition.