Whole30 is still going (Whole27 for me). 18 days down, 9 days to go… but who’s counting.  Of course, I am not making my whole family eat like this. This is my journey. But, I still want us to enjoy meals together. This makes dinner take a little longer sometimes but totally manageable. For example, I make a pasta sauce and they get real, delicious noodles. I get veggie noodles.

Today, I am faking myself out on pizza. I bought naan bread for them to each make their own pizzas but I am putting mine on eggplant instead. I got the idea from another blogger, Chef Kreso. I made a very simple, chunky sauce to put on our pizzas. The kids are either cheese or cheese and olives. Husband is a meaty pizza kind of guy. I’m going with prosciutto and arugula. Yum!

First I made the simple chunky tomato sauce. I took a can of whole tomatoes, dumped it in a bowl and broke up the tomatoes. If you want really chunky sauce, drain all the “liquid.” If you want thinner sauce, keep all the liquid. I was somewhere in between. You can use an immersion blender, a potato masher or your clean hands to break up the tomatoes. I use my hands because it’s fun. I added salt, pepper, granulated garlic powder, oregano and fresh basil to the tomatoes and gave it a stir. That’s it!

I let everyone else top their pizzas while I topped my eggplant. You can slice the eggplant lengthwise or in rounds, whatever you prefer.

I put a little drizzle of olive oil on each piece of eggplant and sprinkled it with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then, I topped each piece with some tomato sauce.  I put it in the oven and baked it for 15 minutes.  When it came out, I topped each eggplant pizza with a slice of prosciutto and a ton of fresh peppery arugula (I really like arugula so you may not want to use as much as I did). Drizzle with a little more olive oil and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Yum!

I love eggplant so I knew this recipe was going to be a winner for me! If you want crispy prosciutto then put it on before baking, but I prefer to put it on afterwards.  Next time I’m going to try a veggie version with crimini mushrooms and zucchini. Really, the possibilities are endless. What toppings would you use?

p.s. How great would this be as an appetizer? You could buy Japanese eggplant and they would all be bite-sized. Perfect!

Eggplant Pizza

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant
Quick Chunky Pizza Sauce (see below)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Proscuitto
Baby Arugula

Preheat oven to 400
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice eggplant ½ inch thick (in rounds or lengthwise, whichever you prefer) and place on prepared baking sheet.
Brush or drizzle a little olive oil on top of each piece of eggplant; sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Top each piece of eggplant with some tomato sauce.
Bake in the oven for about 10–15 minutes (depending on the size/slice of your eggplant).
Remove from oven; place a piece of prosciutto on each “pizza” and top with fresh arugula.
Drizzle with a little more olive oil, season with salt and pepper and dig in!

Quick Chunky Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:
28oz can Whole Peeled Tomatoes
¾ tsp Kosher Salt
½ tsp Granulated Garlic Powder
¼ tsp Ground Pepper
1/8 tsp Ground Oregano
4 large Basil leaves, sliced in thin strips (chiffonade)

If you want a very thick sauce, drain all of the “liquid” from the can; if you want a thinner sauce, don’t drain any (I went in between).
Empty the can of tomatoes into a large mixing bowl.
Break up the tomatoes using either the quick zap of an immersion blender, a potato masher or your clean hands.
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir everything together.