Arto der Haroutunian includes this recipe in his book “Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East.” I had to change the ingredients a bit to suit my store cupboard. Instead of green pepper (which everyone in our family hates), I used frozen spinach which I defrosted. The original black olives were swapped for chili olives. I added chopped red pepper to give the mixture a little colour.
I’ve included a version of this pizza at the bottom of this post for days when you have too much to do and can’t face rolling out individual pizzas.
´The original recipe is enough for 15-20 pizzas with a serving of 2-3 per person.
I made the dough in my bread machine on the dough cycle.
Ingredients for dough:
15 g fresh yeast or 8g dried yeast (I used a 7g packet)
1 tsp sugar
220ml tepid water
350g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice (I used baharat)
When the dough is ready, punch it down and knead it for a minute or two. Divide into golf ball-sized balls. Cover them with a cloth and leave for 10 minutes.
Heat the oven to 230C and grease some baking sheets. Lightly flour a worktop and roll each ball of dough out to a circle of about 15cm in diameter. As you roll each one out, place it on the greased baking sheets, leaving an inch or two between each one. Spread a generous amount of topping over the entire surface of each circle.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the dough is cooked through and lightly golden, but still soft enough to fold.
Serve hot with lemon wedges. To eat sprinkle with lemon juice and roll up like a pancake. These will keep for a few days in the refrigerator. Simply reheat under the grill.
Ingredients for topping:
1 large onion, finely chopped
225g finely chopped walnuts
110g blanched almonds, finely chopped
1 large green pepper, finely chopped
4 tbsp finely chopped parsley
8 black olives, stoned and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
450g ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp pomegranate syrup or 2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tbsp tomato puree
Garnish: lemon wedges
If you can’t face rolling out pizzas for everyone, may I give you a version for busy days.
Make the dough as above. Grease a baking pan, distribute the dough evenly over the pan. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Make the filling. If you want more punch, then add chili sauce instead of or in addition to the tomato puree. I didn’t have any tomato puree, so I substituted Nando’s hot pepper sauce.
Top the pizza dough with the filling, making sure the whole surface is covered evenly. Bake at 230C in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.
I love cheese but I didn’t miss it at all on this. My husband said that he would like the topping to be a bit juicier next time but I liked it just as it was.
Scribblings from a chaotic kitchen 