Turkish Pizza

Ingredients For the Flatbread

•  4 ½ c unbleached all purpose flour
•  1 ½ tsp salt
•  1 Tbsp active dry yeast 
• 1 ½ Tbsp olive oil 
• 1- 1 ¼ c water, warmed to 90F 

For the Topping 

• 1 green pepper
•  1 red pepper 
• 1 onion 
• 1 tomato 
• 2 garlic cloves 
• ¼ c fresh parsley
•  ½ lb ground beef or ground lamb 
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
•  1 ½ tsp tomato paste 
• 1 tsp paprika 
• ½ - 1 tsp red pepper flakes 
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
•  ¼ tsp ground black pepper 

For Serving (as desired)

• Fresh parsley 
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges 
• 2 tomatoes, 
• sliced Lettuce 
• 1 sweet onion, sliced

For the Flatbread

 Mix the flour and yeast in a medium bowl. Add the salt and mix well. Add the oil and mix until well distributed. Add ¾ c of water and mix well. Continue adding a little water at a time until the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto your counter and knead until a soft and supple dough forms, 3-5 minutes. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 min-1 hour.

For the Topping 

Process the peppers, onion, tomato, garlic, and parsley in your food processor in batches according to its size. Once the veggies are finely pureed, transfer them to a fine mesh sieve placed over a bowl. Lightly strain the veggie mixture of excess juices. (Reserve the juices for later.) Place the vegetable puree in a large bowl along with the raw ground meat, olive oil, tomato paste, paprika, red pepper flakes (according to your heat preference), salt, and pepper. Mix well until a soft paste forms. (If the mixture looks dry, add a splash of the reserved vegetable juices to the meat mixture.) Cover the meat mixture and let the flavors develop for 30 min.



Putting It All Together 

Near the end of your resting/rising time, preheat your oven to 450F. Knock back the dough and divide it into 12, roughly even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Once your oven is preheated, place a baking sheet into the oven to preheat. On a lightly floured surface, work with two balls of dough at a time. Roll each ball out to roughly 5x7. Spread a scant ¼ c of filling over top of each piece of dough, spreading the filling with your hands or a rubber spatula to cover the entire piece of dough and pressing the filling into the dough. (The topping shouldn’t fall off when you go to move the dough.) Remove the preheating baking sheet from the oven and transfer the topped pieces of dough onto the hot baking sheet. Stretching the dough to a very thin sheet of roughly 7x10 inches as you transfer it. Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake the pizzas for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are starting to turn golden brown. While the first two are baking, make two more pizzas. When the first two pizzas are done, transfer them onto a wire cooling rack, and place the next two pizzas onto the hot baking sheet. Continue rolling, topping, and baking, until all your pizzas have been made.




For Servings

 Top the warm lahmacun with parsley, tomatoes, lettuce, or onion and a squeeze of lemon juice, as desired. Roll the pizza up and enjoy!