Pizza with grilled aubergine & goat’s cheese

This pizza with grilled aubergine & goat’s cheese is a delicious flavour combination. You will love it.

I have been searching for the perfect pizza dough recipe for a while now, and to date have been left a little disappointed. Some recipes were ok, and others including one by an international celebrity chef failed miserably. I wanted one that is my go-to every time recipe, and one that kind of gives me a pizza restaurant taste and texture. Yes, I want the real deal.

My other big mission was to master the skill of turning my Big Green Egg into a super hot pizza oven which I had read it could be. After a couple of attempts, I hadn’t managed to achieve this either.  

I contact the people at Big Green egg to troubleshoot my problems and it seems I was using the wrong kind of charcoal. You need a really good quality lump-wood charcoal and they sent me a 10kg bag to use in my test.

I am thrilled to report back on a huge success. Not only did the fire perfectly I managed to get the temperature up to over its Max on the Egg right off the bat. I mean this is over 400 C and 750 F. 

I made 2 different pizza dough recipes, both the day before, and despite being fairly different in terms of quantity of yeast, both rose to the occasion and delivered delicious tasting crispy and puffy pizza crusts.

In searching for these recipes I typed ‘best ever pizza dough‘ into Google and the first one I got was on 101 cookbooks. I loved the look and sound of this pizza base. Super authentic, and fairly straightforward in terms of ingredients, and I loved how you use a machine to make it. I followed this exactly, used my paddle and dough hook and kept the balls in my fridge overnight. I took them out a couple of houses before making the pizza and the dough rose up to perfection. I found the taste a little better than the second recipe (which Fritz preferred), but either or is great.

The second recipe is for a New York Style pizza dough and requires about 10 minutes of kneading by hand. If you have ever got into making bread, you may find like I do, that kneading can be amazingly therapeutic. I set the timer on my fridge and when the 10 minutes was up, I was so in the groove, I wanted to carry on for longer. I definitely need to make more bread in the future.

We made a variety of pizza flavours for my big test day, all the standard toppings that I like, but I also made this delicious vegetarian one, with grilled aubergine, basil pesto, and goat’s cheese.

Pre-grill slices of aubergine which you have brushed with oil on a griddle pan and set aside. When you get to the assembly stage, spread a layer of basil pesto over the base. Either make your own or use a good quality bought one like Pesto Princess. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on top of that. I like to make a very basic sauce with onions, tomatoes, garlic, and seasoning, which I cook for a while until it thickens. You can also just use really good quality tinned tomato or tomato passata. Top that with grated mozzarella, and the slices of aubergine and then dot over pieces of creamy goat’s cheese. Quantities all depend on the size of your pizza and personal preference, so you don’t need a recipe here.

Turn the Big Green egg into the pizza-making outdoor oven that it is, and bake for a few minutes until puffed up, crispy on the underside and the cheese is bubbling (about 4 – 5 minutes). If you are doing this on an indoor oven – you want to get it to the maximum temp you can.

You also need a pizza stone which is big enough to carry the pizza, and a pizza peel which is essential to get the pizza on and off. I have found that scattering a little polenta/semolina flour, on the peel really helps prevent the dough from sticking. Fritz likes to flour the underside.

The other piece of equipment I really like is the fire-starting chimney. It makes lighting your charcoal a breeze, and you simply need to tip it out into the egg and then top up with more charcoal as you go.

There are masses of tutorials to help you with all things related to a Big Green Egg and I particularly enjoyed this video tutorial by Fred Bernado – the smoky guitar player. I am completely and utterly in love with mine. It is far beyond an outdoor barbecue, it’s an outdoor cooking phenomenon. If you have all the above equipment, correct pizza dough, proper charcoal, along with a Big Green Egg, of course, you have your own proper pizza oven that makes authentic wood-fired pizzas in your backyard. Forever.

For more of my Big Green recipes take a look at my: sticky chipotle barbecue ribs or my lower-carb pizzas made with aubergine as the base.  

A few other goat’s cheese recipe you might like:

Roast cherries with whipped goat’s cheese dip

Caramelised onion & goat’s cheese tartlets

Goat’s cheese truffles with honey & pistachios

Dukkah baked pears with goat’s cheese & honey

* My Big Green Egg was sponsored

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