Thin-Crust Pide with Spicy Lamb Topping

Name: Thin-Crust Pide with Spicy Lamb Topping (Lahmacun)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon salt; 70 g (2½ oz/½ cup) wholemeal flour (if using a baking tray); 200 g (7 oz/1⅓ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting; 75 g (2⅔ oz) capsicum (pepper) paste; 5 garlic cloves; 2 tomatoes; 1 red capsicum (pepper); 1 tablespoon sumac; ½ red onion, finely sliced; juice of ½ lemon, plus extra to serve; 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 2 teaspoons chilli flakes; ½ bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley; 200 g (7 oz) minced (ground) lamb (about 25 per cent fat); 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Lahmacun

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Anatolia

By David Dale and Somer Sivrioglu

Published 2015

About

When I say thin-crust pizza is Italy’s answer to lahmacun (pronounced ‘lahmahjun’), I’m not trying to start a fight. The idea of putting spiced mince on a disc of dough would have occurred to human beings long before there were nations called Italy or Turkey—or for that matter Armenia, Greece or Syria—all of whom have claimed to be the originators of this addictive pastry. What we do know is that nowadays lahmacun is a speciality of the town of Şanlıurfa, in southeastern Tu