I’m leaving for Italy in a few days. Aside from a few beautiful places, I’ll be traveling to the region of Abruzzo, fairly unknown to tourists, and staying in a medieval village in the mountains. Along with feeling excited, I’m also a little nervous about my lack of experience driving on mountain roads and my non-existent knowledge of the Italian language. I predict I will be tasting some amazing pizza very soon, but for now, here is one of my favorites that I make at home.
I’ve been making roasted eggplant and bell pepper pizza with all kinds of different crusts as long as I’ve been cooking vegetarian – it’s such a winner of a dish. It all began with a traditional wheat-based crust that was later replaced with my favorite sprouted flatbread. As delicious as the sprouted crust is, the process is very involved. When I saw Laura’s recipe for a simple, gluten-free pizza crust, I had to give it a try. I chose to use buckwheat groats instead of quinoa/millet because I love the taste and texture of buckwheat, which does not need to be soaked for 8 hours like most grains do – the groats become soft after just an hour of soaking.
As for the toppings, I’ve had several occasions when I fed this pizza to eggplant skeptics, who were converted right there and then.
In other news, our cookbook is now out in French! Visit here to learn more.
Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Pizza on a Buckwheat Crust
makes two 8-9-inch pizzas
Toppings
1 garlic head
1 eggplant – sliced
1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper – seeded and cut into chunks
olive oil
chili powder – to taste
sea salt, black pepper – to taste
feta cheese – optional
leafy greens for garnish
Buckwheat Crust
1 1/4 cup raw (untoasted) buckwheat groats – soaked for 1 hour or overnight
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil plus more for the cake pans
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper – to taste
garlic and/or onion powder or fresh garlic – optional
fresh/dried thyme, oregano – optional
to prepare the toppings
1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Cut the very top of the garlic head off to expose the insides. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap in foil or parchment paper.
3. Mix olive oil and chili powder to taste. Place eggplant slices and pepper chunks into a large baking dish and brush with the chili oil.
4. Place both the garlic and vegetables into the oven, roast for about 20 minutes or until soft. Set aside.
to make the crusts
1. Preheat oven to 450 F
2. Rinse the buckwheat groats very well, they become very slimy during soaking. Combine groats, water, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and other spices/herbs if using, in a blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Place two 8-9-inch cake pans into the hot oven for 5 minutes. Remove them from the oven and add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to each (use cooking spray if your cake pans stick). Place back into the oven for 3-5 minutes.
4. Working quickly, pour the batter into the pans – spread it inside evenly. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip the crusts and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce temperature to 400 F.
to make the pizzas
1. Place crusts onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Smear most of the roasted garlic over the crust.
2. Slice the bell pepper chunks into smaller pieces if you wish. Arrange the eggplant and pepper slices on the crusts snuggly, to cover most of the surface.
3. Place pizzas back in the oven and bake for 10-15 more minutes. Sprinkle with feta cheese (if using) and finely chopped kale or other greens.
4. Let cool slightly before slicing.
sophie | lucky star anise says
What a beautiful pizza – love the entire head of roasted garlic in this recipe. Have a wonderful time in Italy!
Anya says
Thank you Sophie!
myriam | rhubarb! rhubarb! rhubarb! says
this is so gorgeous! eggplant and pepper is all I’ve been eating lately, so I’m really excited to try this buckwheat crust.
Anya says
Thanks Myriam! Pepper and eggplant is such a great combination.
Kimberly/TheLittlePantation says
This looks oh so yummy.
I am preparing for ‘baking season’ as we move into the cooler/colder months. This is top of my list
Thanks for sharing
Kimberly
Anya says
Thank you Kimberly, hope you enjoy it.
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
This is such a cool combo of flavours!! Loving this!
Anya says
Thanks Katrina!
Lane | Green Spirit Adventures says
I’ve only had eggplant once or twice – and it was several years ago – but I have two beautiful eggplants sitting on my kitchen counter at the moment. I think I’ll definitely have to use one to make this pizza! It sounds lovely. :)
I’ve been using buckwheat rather obsessively lately, so this crust sounds perfect!!
Anya says
Lane, sounds like it’s fate :) Hope you got around to it and enjoyed it.
Amy - Parsley In My Teeth says
Have a wonderful time in Italy! I had the best pizza in my life in Rome – no tomato sauce just like yours. Looks delicious!
Anya says
Thanks Amy, I always prefer pizza without sauce.
Kathy says
Oh I so adore your blog/recipes. Your pizza will be delicious, all your recipes are. I must admit I am so envious of your travel plans, yet I am very excited for you. Thank you for sharing so many beautiful recipes~ Happy trails and best wishes for so many great moments and beautiful memories are being sent your way.ENJOY!
Anya says
Thank you so much Kathy!
Sini | My Blue&White Kitchen says
This is such a delicious looking pizza! Love all those grilled veggies on top. Have a wonderful time in Italy!
Anya says
Thank you Sini :)
jaime says
I love this and I’m so glad you linked to Laura’s post for another version of the soaked-grain pizza crust. I’ve been making one with quinoa lately and can’t get enough of it and hadn’t even thought to try buckwheat. thank you for sharing this!
Anya says
Jaime, Laura’s crust is amazing!
eva says
it is called abruzzO golubka and it is a wonderful region:) welcome to my country! you will love the food:)
Anya says
Hi Eva, sorry for the spelling mistake and thank you!
eva says
try to learn at least some of italian as italians REALLY don’t speak other languages.but on the side note there are many russian comunities so you might find your copatriots!
ziva says
Love your recipes, styling and photos, which camera equipment do you use?
Anya says
Thank you Ziva, Canon 5D Mark II with 50 mm or Macro lens.
Nik@ABrownTable says
This is a pizza crust to die for, I’m going to give it a shot this weekend. I
Anya says
Hope you liked it Nik.
Ashley says
This looks amazing. I love eggplant but I always salt it so it is less bitter. Is this unnecessary when the eggplant is roasted?
Anya says
Hi Ashley, salting the eggplant is not necessary for this recipe, but you can definitely do it to reduce any bitterness.
Shelley McNally says
OMG! I was a little concerned halfway thru this recipe but kept on and wow I’m impressed. Yummy!
Julia says
This looks sooo good. May I ask why you put the pans in the oven for several minutes before adding the dough?
Domenica says
Dear Anja,
I love your recipes, but this one didn’t work very well for me.
The temperatures are very high – olive oil started to smoke a lot (I used pomace which has much higher smoking point then vergin) and my pan twisted from the heat a bit! :-) There is quite a lot of grease in the pan, co the crust actually fries – is that correct?
Thank you!
Domenica
Domenica says
One more thing to add – my oven is heating from the bottom and the top as well – may this be the reason? Should I use only the bottom heater?
Thank you,
D.
Anya says
Hi Domenica,
I’m so sorry the recipe didn’t work out! It’s so hard to say what went wrong without being there with you. I’ve learned over the years that each oven is different and heats things differently, which makes it even more challenging to write recipes involving the oven :) I try to keep my oven calibrated at all times to give accurate temperatures. The pan should be pretty hot, since you are essentially treating the dough as a pancake and pouring it into a hot pan to set, but it shouldn’t really be fried, just crispy on the edges and a bit soft inside. As for the oil, this recipe was written years ago when I was still heating olive oil, but since then I’ve pretty much completely switched over to neutral-flavored coconut oil as my cooking oil of choice. It has a higher smoking point, and I just really love the way it behaves.
I’m so sorry again about this, I know it’s super frustrating when a recipe doesn’t work out.
Domenica says
Thank you Anya for your reply. I must say, despite all the dificulties while making, the final result (I mean the taste) was really good, so I definitely plan to repeat the dish and just try to adjust the temperature, the pan, and the type of oil.
Right, olive oil is quite often used in the recipes on the blogs, and I always do wonder if that is really healthy to use for coooking. It seems that refined (I assume it’s the same thing you call neutral?) coconut oil or ghee are the best (the highest smoking point).
Just one question – when you bake things – as a default – you use just a bottom heater or both the bottom and the top one (not sure what is the standard in US). That actally makes the difference as well. I was checking my oven as far as calibration, and it was fine, but who knows, pehaps I should check it again.
Thank you for your comments and all the great recipes!
Domenica
Anya says
Hi Domenica,
I’m glad that it still tasted good at least!
I do use refined coconut oil sometimes for frying, but I also use unrefined coconut oil for roasting and baking. There are certain brands in the US that make coconut oil that’s pretty neutral in flavor, even though they are unrefined. Nutiva is one of them.
As for the oven, I believe ours only heats from the bottom.
Hope this helps!
Anya
Cookismo says
Absolutely gorgeous… Tested and approved. An amazing find ! Many thanks.
Christelle
Anya says
Thank you Christelle! So glad you enjoyed it.