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Lahmahjoon (Armenian Pizza)

This delicious Armenian inspired crispy pizza is topped with a flavor-packed mixture of minced meat with onion, pepper, tomato, and fresh herbs. You can take a shortcut by using quality store-bought pizza dough. The secret to this pizza is in the spice mixture that is best if allowed to set overnight for the flavors to blend.
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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound ground lamb (or ground beef)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
  • 1 cup finely chopped sweet onion
  • ½ cup finely chopped green pepper
  • ½ cup finely chopped red pepper
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 14.5 ounce can peeled and diced tomatoes
  • 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
  • ½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1½ tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1 *par-baked pizza crust (see notes)

Method
 

Pizza Topping *Prepare the night before
  1. Place ground lamb in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add salt and pepper and break into small pieces, cook until mostly browned. Drain excess grease.
    Add the onion, green pepper, and garlic, cooking until onion is translucent.
    Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste, stir well.
    Add parsley, basil, mint, cumin, and if using, cayenne.
    Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and *refrigerate overnight to blend the flavors.
Pizza Crust
  1. Prepare your favorite pizza dough or purchase already made pizza dough.
    Place a pizza stone or inverted rimmed baking sheet on the lower oven rack and preheat to 475 degrees F.
    Roll out or stretch the pizza dough to make a 12" round or oval. Using a giant spatula or pizza peel transfer the dough to hot oven stone; or place the dough on a pan, and place the pan on the middle rack of your oven.
    Bake for 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven.
  2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F or prepare wood fired pizza oven to 700 degrees F
  3. Distribute the lamb mixture evenly over the par-baked pizza crust, and spread out to the edges.
    Bake for about 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Bake 1-2 minutes in wood fired pizza oven.
    Cut into small wedges.
    Lahmahjoon can be served hot or cold.

Notes

This meat mixture is very heavy and moist, par-baking the pizza crust before adding the toppings will allow for a crisper and more evenly cooked pizza.