Eggplant Pizza

A few weeks ago I made one of the most amazing pizza's I have ever made before. And surprisingly enough, eggplant was the star of the show. I am not a huge eggplant person but I was experimenting with it and got an amazing result with my pizza. Unfortunately I totally forgot to take pictures :(. What good is a blog post without pictures. I will be making it again soon and when I do you will be the first to know. i will be sure to take lots of pictures and share this amazing recipe with you. Can't wait to eat it again and share it with you.

It's time for some soup!

I was watching one of my favorite Italian cooks on TV. I watched her make this incredible looking soup. I decided to try it and change it up a little based on what my available ingredients are and what I like. Pappa al Pamadoro is what they call it in Italy. For this recipe you will need old bread. I find that it tastes best with old sourdough or french bread. The sourdough bread is good because even when you add it to the soup you can still taste the sourdough part of the bread which is super yummy. You can use any old stale bread for this recipe.
This soup is awesome because it is the entire meal in one bowl. It has plenty of protein and starch from the beans and the cheese I ad gives and extra depth of flavor and completeness to the meal.

Ingredients:
8 cloves of garlic
2 large white onions
28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 large vine ripe tomato.
4 cups of Chicken stock
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
small hand full of Fresh basil
1/2 cup of Olive oil
1 tsp of sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper
16 oz Can of white beans
Loaf of bread (any kind you like, you can use stale bread if you like and sourdough is preferred)
1 cup of ricotta cheese
Sweet Italian Sausage (optional)

Crush, peel and chop garlic. Chop onions. Save about a cup of raw chopped onions on the side.  Put the rest onions in the bottom of the pan preheated with 1/4 cup of olive oil in the bottom. Have the burner on medium heat. Let the onions cook until they are caramelized. Do not burn. Add the garlic and let cook together for about 3 minutes. While the onions and garlic are cooking. Cut your fresh tomato into chunks and add to the garlic and onions. Add salt and pepper. Once the tomato has cooked down pour in the can of crushed tomatoes. add a tsp of sugar (this is used to cut the acidity of the tomatoes). Pour in the chicken stock. Open the can of white beans and drain out the juice and add the white beans to the soup.  Let simmer for at least 15 min. Take the stale bread and cut it into chunks and add to the soup. Let it cook with the other ingredients and absorb the broth. The soup should start to thicken as the bread absorbs the broth. Let it simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes.

Chop the basil into thin slices right before you are ready to eat. Put soup into individual serving bowls. should serve 4-6 people. Once the soup is in the bowl, drop a tablespoon of the ricotta cheese into the soup bowl. Sprinkle the leftover raw onions to the top, add some basil, sprinkle the parmesan cheese and top off with an extra drizzle of olive oil and some fresh ground black pepper. The drizzle of olive oil and the raw onions are key here. This dish cannot be served without it.  I added an italian sweet sausage to the bowl to complete this amazing Italian dinner. Very healthy, and very hearty. I guarantee you will love it. Leave out the sausage for a vegetarian meal. If you want to go vegan, leave out the cheese or substitute it for some soy cheese. 

 

Hope you enjoy as much as I did.