Lamb Pizza with Labneh

FEATURING MONJAY MEZZA’S LABNEH

Not much needs to be done to enjoy our products, Break open a packet of your favourite crackers or cut a carrot into batons and dip away. Or simply arrange our delicious finger foods on a platter and watch them crowd around. But the potential of our range is so much more, and we want to prove it. So we've created our very own recipe page to show you the versatility of our products. Dips to marinate or bake with, finger food transformed into main meals - the limit is your imagination.

YIELDS: 1 Lamb Pizza
BAKE TIME: 10 min

There are many recipes for lamb pizza on the internet, but we’re pretty sure ours is the only one that calls for a trip to Bunnings. Yep, that’s right – pizza and Bunnings, all in one day. If you play your cards right, maybe a sausage in a blanket, too. You’re welcome. Now, as you’re no doubt aware, we’re not big on rules, unless it comes to bending them. However, there are two… strong requests….we’d like to make regarding pizza, which are as follows.

One, make sure your oven is as hot as it can get, and cook your lamb pizza on stone. You can buy a perfectly round, polished disc of stone, conveniently called a pizza stone, from any kitchen supply shop, or you can make a trip to your favourite hardware store and pick up a stone paver for a few dollars. We know you’ll make the right decision.

Secondly, regarding toppings, less is more. If you don’t want your slice pointing at your shoes when you pick it up, learn restraint. If you can’t make up your mind on which toppings to leave out, well, that’s why god invented half and half. This recipe makes more topping than is necessary for one pizza, so simply freeze the remainder.

Ingredients

Pizza base

1 ¼ cups 00 flour or plain flour
1 teaspoon of dried yeast
A pinch of sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil, plus a little extra

Lamb topping

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed with a little salt or grated
500 grams of lamb mince
50g pine nuts
2 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon sumac
3 tablespoons Monjay Mezza Labneh
A squeeze of lemon juice
Small handful of coriander leaves

How to Prepare

Set your oven to its highest temperature and place a pizza stone or a paver on the highest rack.

To make the dough, mix the dry ingredients together and then add the tablespoon of oil and ¾ of a cup of lukewarm water. Bring together, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for around five minutes.

Sit in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm to prove for half an hour or until it has doubled in size.
Now punch the air out of it. Think of something that’s lately given you grief if necessary. Roll into a thin circle and place on a square of baking paper.

To make the topping, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat and fry the onion until golden. Add the garlic and give it a stir. Add the lamb and start breaking it up.

Once the lamb is browned, stir in the pine nuts, tomatoes, pomegranate molasses and spices, then season with salt and pepper. If the tomatoes are particularly liquid-y, cook it off a little so it doesn’t make the base soggy. When you run your wooden spoon across the pan, liquid shouldn’t be rushing in to fill the space.

Spread some of the topping over the pizza base (you won’t need it all – freeze the remainder), then slide it – along with the baking paper – onto the pizza stone in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes or so, depending on how hot your oven is.

When the crust is golden brown, slide it out and top with some of our Labneh, a squeeze of lemon juice and coriander leaves.

Serve with a crisp green salad dressed in something vinegary.

Monjay Mezza is the home of traditional Middle Eastern Dips, Finger Food and Desserts.