Recipe: Lebanese Pizza [GUEST POST]
This guest post for FOODBEAST is brought to you by UK Chef and Author John Gregory-Smith who just released his Mighty Spice Cookbook this past August, available at Amazon.com. John Gregory-Smith uses his well-traveled pallett to write recipes and features for the likes of Men’s Health, TNT Magazine and GQ.com. Best believe he’s got some interesting things to share:
In Beirut, I worked at a beautiful brasserie called Souk el Tayeb. Normally, I didn’t eat breakfast because I ate so much and so well during the day. One morning, however, I was so hungry that I asked the guys for breakfast, which turned out to be my new “breakfast of champions”: a freshly cooked flat bread, smothered in spices and filled with cheese and fresh mint. I was instructed to open it up and douse it with chili and lemon juice before tucking in. It was a wondrous culinary experience and here is my version. — John Gregory Smith
Serves 4
- 2 tablespoons dried thyme
- 11/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 large flour tortillas
- 7 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
- 7 ounces mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 1 large handful mint leaves, roughly
- chopped
- sea salt
- lemon wedges, to serve
1 Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Mix the thyme, cumin, allspice, chili powder, oil and a pinch of salt together in a bowl. Lay out the tortillas on an oven rack and brush the tops with the flavored oil. Divide the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella into four potions and arrange over the top of each tortilla.
2 Put the rack with the pizzas in the oven and cook 5 to 6 minutes until the bread becomes really crisp at the edges and the cheese melts. Scatter the mint leaves over and serve immediately with wedges of lemon to squeeze over the top.
[Photo Credit: From Mighty Spice Cookbook © Commissioned Photography by William Lingwood / Duncan Baird Publishers 2011]
