Eggplant Focaccia

Eggplant is one of those things that I try to like, but keep failing (Bloody Mary's are another). I only ever really like it in baba ganoush, and even then I'm not so sure about it.

Wait, I take that back. My friend Tony makes the best eggplant parmigiana sandwich I've ever had in my life. And an Italian antipasto salad with fried eggplant bits on it. That's tasty.

I guess what I mean is that I've never been able to prepare eggplant myself, eat what I've made, and said "hey! that's great! can't wait to make that again".

So here's another one on the list of "meh, eggplant". Not because the recipe has any problems. Think along the lines of "it's not you, it's me." I present to you: Eggplant Focaccia, from Culinary in the Desert Country.

[Aside: Ooh look, a paragraph with a period outside the quotes in one sentence, and inside the quotes in another. I blame the length of the enclosed phrases, plus the fact that the 2nd one can be a sentence in its own right. Yes, I'm a dork. Moving on...]

















I bought the pizza dough from Trader Joe's, and replaced the oregano with basil from a barely-surviving plant I have in the back yard. (I kill basil better than anyone.) And I tried the whole heating one pan while making the focaccia on another thing, with the intention of transferring the rested/risen assemblage from the 2nd pan to the 1st (or the 1st to the 2nd, depending on how you look at it). But that was so not working. So on the 2nd...er...1st...er...original pan it stayed.

Tasty? Sure. Dough and cheese is always good. I even ate the eggplant. On my first slice. But I confess, I did remove most of the offending vegetable from successive slices. But for a more unbiased opinion, Hubby said "Did you take pictures? You should blog this." So if you like eggplant, this is good.