As Long As We're Talking Pizza...

The Friday Five pizza question made me, unsurprisingly, hungry for pizza.

If I had thought about my answer more, I probably would have noted that I tend to go in for the unusual when it comes to pizza. A couple of years ago I came up with this idea, and I enjoy it a lot:

Ratatouille Pizza
a mess of zucchini, yellow squash and, if you like them, eggplant, in whatever proportions you favor, sliced very thin
one large onion, sliced very thin
1 red bell pepper, sliced very thin
two (or more) garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
a couple of fresh tomatoes, diced
mushrooms, if you like them
mozzarella and Parmesan/hard-cheese blend of your choice (I like the parm/romano/asiago
herbs of your choice
Boboli or other premade pizza crust

Place squash/eggplant slices, bell pepper, onion and garlic in a large covered frying pan to which you've added a generous sploosh of olive oil. Heat on high; stir occasionally; when things start really cookin' in the pan, add the mushrooms and turn the heat down to medium. Keep the pan covered; keep stirring. (You're basically half-sauteeing, half steaming the veggies.) After about 15 minutes, the veggies should be tender, with a lot of the vegetable liquid at the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes and cook for maybe 5 mintues more, until the tomato has integrated into the rest of the vegetables. Drain the veggies well.

Meanwhile, place some mozzarella cheese on the bottom of the pizza crust. Spread a generous portion of vegetables atop the cheese. Add more mozzarella and the hard cheese(s) of your choice, plus any herbs that you might enjoy, and maybe a few grinds of pepper.

Broil pizza until cheese is melty.