Lavash Pizza

There are many kinds of lavash. There are crackers, my least favorite. Then, there’s a very thin, Armenian kind of lavash that is perfect for wraps. Sometimes I get naughty and make fajitas with it And finally, there is the Georgian kind. The thickest one. And not just any. The one with a cut in the middle. The favorite! Because it reminds me of a bread we have back home, somun, although it’s nothing like it. I just always think that if somun went to Georgia and stayed there for a while, it would turn into something like this

Strangely, this pizza seems like it’s made with ground meat. Not to me, but all who ate it said so

– This pizza is not so bad. Actually, it’s amazing. And I don’t even like when it’s made with ground meat.
– There is no meat in there.
– Yeah, right.

A few hours and one guest later…

– How’s the pizza R?
– Great! What is it? Ground meat? I like it very much!

Balsamic onion, pear and walnut Georgian lavash pizza

1 Georgian lavash bread
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large red onions
a pinch of salt
60 ml caramelized balsamic vinegar*
about 70 g red pesto
a half of 1 Williams pear
200 g mozzarella
a handful of walnuts
a handful of arugula

*If you’re not able to get caramelized balsamic vinegar, substitute it with balsamic vinegar reduction. Take about 120 ml balsamic vinegar and simmer until volume reduces by half.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add finely sliced onions and salt and fry just until the onions soften. Add 2 tablespoons of caramelized balsamic vinegar and cook for a minute or two more. Remove from heat. Peel and core the pear and thinly slice it. Slice mozzarella also; not too thin. Chop walnuts and toast them a bit.

Turn the oven to heat to 428°F/220°C. Heat the oven with a large oven pan inside because you want it hot when you put the pizza into the oven.

Spread pesto over the bread. You might want to add more than the recipe says, and that will depend of the size of the bread you take. You can also use any pesto you have on hand, it doesn’t have to be the red one Scatter the onion over and top with pear and mozzarella.

Transfer onto baking pan and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with walnuts and arugula. Drizzle the remaining caramelized balsamic vinegar over.

Notes:

This recipe is very adaptable. You can use any flat bread you can find. Or you can make your favorite pizza dough and bake it free of any toppings and then top it like in the recipe. Hey, you can even make bruschetta!

Recipe is adapted from Delicious. magazine, May 2013 issue.