Kathy’s Eggplant Pizza

My taste buds were calling for pizza - obviously a no-no. However, since I've substituted eggplant for the noodles in lasagne, and boiled cabbage in place of egg noodles, why not for pizza "crust"? It definitely wasn't eat-with-your fingers pizza but it was every bit as good as what I used to make! So was the left over serving I just had for lunch!

I peeled a fairly large eggplant and sliced it into approximately 1/4" slices lengthways. I brushed both sides with garlic flavoured oil and place them on a 12x15 inch jelly roll pan that I'd sprayed with cooking spray.

You'll have to cut and piece the slices to fit and cover as much of the bottom of the pan as possible. Let them overlap a little, as they'll shrink as they cook and you can then move the pieces again to cover the bottom of the pan before adding the toppings. I baked this for 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Meanwhile, I diced onion and green bell pepper, chopped black olives, fried some Jimmy Dean Sage sausage and grated a goodly amount of mozzarella cheese. I spread about 2/3 cup of a squeezable pizza sauce I had on hand over the top of my al dente eggplant.  I can't recall the name of it but it's made by Contadina. Then I put on my toppings, sprinkled Parmesan over the top and popped it in the oven for maybe 15-20 minutes. I'm sorry my times aren't accurate - I don't measure stuff either!

I'm sure you could add your own favorite pizza toppings just as easily - normally I'd have put pepperoni on too, but didn't have any.