I bake pizza once per week, usually on weekends, paired with a bowl of mixed salad and a (good) movie or a series, whatever we have “in store”. It’s been a long time since we’d gone outside for pizza – we prefer a home-made one, with a freshly prepared dough, aromatized with spices, and with an ever-varying, rich topping.

The other weekend I felt a bit puzzled at first, since I was a little short in our usual pizza ingredients, but then I recalled reading about lahmacun, an Anatolian dish resembling pizza but topped with ground meat (usually lamb or beef) and different types of vegetables. Doesn’t that sound just delicious? I had to try it out. I can say that was one of the best pizzas I’ve had. Despite the meat content, it didn’t feel any heavier than any other common, classic topping I’d used before.

I didn’t follow any specific recipe, I just used ground beef and the vegetables I had in the fridge that day.  My affection for cheese didn’t let me omit it, but you might want to try it without it if you prefer it.

For the pizza dough:
250g all-purpose flour
10g fresh yeast
80g plain yogurt
a little water, lukewarm
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp olive oil

For the topping:
200g minced meat
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 spring onion
1 garlic clove
150ml pureed tomato
a little water
salt and pepper
1/2tsp chopped rosemary
150g grated cheese of your choice
a few onion slices
a few red bell pepper slices
a generous pinch of dried oregano
fresh chives, chopped

1. Start making the dough by dissolving the yeast in a little warm water, mixed with sugar.
2. In a big bowl, mix the flour with yogurt (at room temperature), salt, nutmeg, oregano and olive oil. Add the dissolved yeast and start mixing with a wooden spoon. Knead the dough with your hands and add a little warm water if needed (or some flour, if the dough is too sticky). Form a ball, cover it with a kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour.
3. In the meantime prepare the topping: heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook for a minute without browning, then add the minced meat and stir. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and add tomato puree.
4. Roll out the dough in the desired shape (I use my rectangular pan, 35x25cm), for the edges and prick the dough all over with a fork. Now, you can top it with meat right away or do like I do: pre-bake the dough for a few minutes at 220ºC and then top it. This works well for me and my little oven, however you will know best what suits you more. So, top the dough with the meat sauce, arrange some onion and pepper slices over it, sprinkle with grated cheese and dried oregano.
5. Place it in the oven and bake until done (in my oven it takes about 10 minutes of pre-baking and then another 10 or so with the topping). Take out of oven, let sit for a few minutes, then slice, sprinkle with chopped chives and serve warm.

Tasty...

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