Eggplant Pizza with Bunya Nut Pesto

As seasonal a recipe as they come, this eggplant with pizza topping is easy and fast.

Slice  eggplant into 1.5 cm slices.  Salt and drain for an hour or so.  Rinse, pat dry, and rub with olive oil.

Bake for 20 mins or so till just starting to soften.

Cover with pesto, then pizza toppings of your choice: onion, capsicum, tomato, olives, mushroom – all finely sliced.

Top with a mixture of low fat cottage cheese and grated parmesan cheese in about a two to one ratio.

Pop it back into a hot oven for 10 minutes or so till the cheese mixture bubbles and browns. Good with a crunchy salad.

Bunya Pesto

I made the pesto for this batch with bunya nuts, and it was divine!  We have bunyas growing but the trees are young and don’t fruit every year. These ones came from some cones that some friends (thanks Ashley and Annie!) collected  from a roadside tree.  The big green cones fall apart as they ripen, releasing the nuts inside, that look like this:

I pressure cooked the bunyas for 20 minutes then cooled them, then cut them in halves and scooped out the nut.

There is a knack to doing this without cutting your fingers off.  Use a big heavy knife – the kind you’d use for a pumpkin.  Hold the nut with one hand, sitting it on its fat end, and get the blade of the knife dug in across the pointy end.  Shift your holding hand to the top of the knife and cut down.  Once you have the knack, it’s easy and fast.

Then it’s simply a matter of blending together basil and bunyas with olive oil, and adding just a little parmesan cheese, and garlic, and salt to taste.