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| The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles agree that life without pizza is less fun. |
We went through the make-your-own-gluten-free-pizza-dough stage, which turned it from a fun and easy Friday night dinner to a big production that dirtied up all the bowls and called for the KitchenAid mixer to get hauled out of the basement (I'm usually on dish detail so this version of pizza night sucked). We tried every revolting, inadequate "cheese" substitute out there, which left David picking sullenly at his sauce-less, rubbery pizza while the rest of us ate (less fun for everyone, but mostly David). We tried making our own pesto as a sauce substitute, but pesto without Parmesan is a two-note symphony, plus finding that much good basil in mid-winter is expensive (not, I don't have a garden, I don't think ahead, get over it); and it overwhelms the flavor of the toppings so it's not worth it anyway. We went through a we'll-eat-pizza-and-David-can-eat-leftovers stage, which was unsatisfactory all the way around.
When you can't eat crust, sauce, cheese, or pepperoni, traditional pizza night is just plain out. I'm firmly set against eating food that pretends to be other food, and the substitutes we tried (pumpkin-based sauce, anyone?) just made David notice what he was missing out on. Time to change the game.
He's been tinkering with a very successful GF pita bread recipe lately, which got us to thinking that we could try a riff on lahmacun, which is like a Turkish variation on pizza. I found a potato-free version of GF pizza dough at the grocery store last week (which is a very convincing argument for trying different stores every once in a while) so he didn't have to bother with making pita on a weeknight. He improvised this topping while I tried to figure out how to cut up olives without actually touching them, which is much trickier than it sounds. The kids made their own versions (cheese, pepperoni, ham, onion, green pepper, and olive for Anna; sauce, pepperoni, and carrot for John); we all sat down happily together; and the kids were so intrigued by ours that they had to try it, and agreed that it was much tastier than the regular kind and we should all eat this all the time from now on. Yay! Pizza Night is saved! TMNT will be happy.
Lamb Pizza
1 gluten-free pizza crust (the pre-cooked kind in the freezer section, unless you're ambitious and already made your own). You could obviously use a regular pizza crust here as well, but make sure you get the thin-and-crispy variety that's more like a flatbread.
1/2 lb. ground lamb
1 small onion, chopped small
1 tsp cumin, or to taste
1 tsp ground coriander, or to taste
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 eggs
Garlic salt
Preheat the oven to whatever temperature is indicated on the pizza crust package.
In a large skillet, brown the lamb with the spices; check the seasoning and adjust it however you want. Spread the lamb over the pizza crust, sprinkle with the pine nuts, and crack the eggs over the top (we used 2 because we were sharing it; if you have a smaller crust, feel free to just use one. Or skip it entirely if this is too far-out for you, or you don't like eggs).
Bake for whatever amount of time the pizza crust calls for; the egg white should be set and not at all runny, but the yolks should be cooked through. Ours baked at 425 for 5-7 minutes and that was just about right. If your crust calls for a longer baking you could put it in without the egg, then add it halfway through or thereabouts.
Serve as-is. We smushed the egg up into the lamb and sprinkled it with garlic salt, which I personally would have put in the topping in the first place. This would also be excellent with a dollop of plain yogurt or tzatziki, or some cold garlicky greens, or chopped tomatoes. We're going to be eating this a lot so I'll be sure to report on how all these variations turn out.
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