Tri-Color Pepper Pita Pizza With Armenian Basturma

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

9 slices of basturma- cured Armenian beef

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, julienne

4 garlic cloves minced

2 green bell peppers, sliced

2 red bell peppers, sliced

2 yellow bell peppers, sliced

2 teaspoons red chili flakes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

salt to taste

1/4 cup water

12 slices of mozzarella cheese – (this is what I had in my fridge you are free to use shredded

olive oil

3 large pita bread

Preparation

Heat the oven at 350 degrees.

Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a saute pan. Fry the basturma in olive oil for just a minute on each side. Remove from the pan.

Heat 3 tablespoon of olive oil, then add the sliced onions and saute for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Then add the garlic, followed by the bell peppers. After about 7 minutes, add the pepper paste. One minute later add the 1/4 cup water and adjust seasoning with some salt. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and reserve for the pizzas.

On a greased baking pan, lay the pita breads. Before adding all your layers, brush the pitas with some olive oil. When ready to bake, add the sliced cheese, the pepper fillings. Arrange the basturma on top of the pizzas and bake it in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes.

Not much baking is required for the pizzas since the filling is already cooked.

Tools

Comments

Permalink HyeThymeCafe
October 25, 2010

Love basturma! Never would have thought to put it on pizza for some reason. All the non-Armenians in the family can't pronounce sujouk or basturma, so they refer to it as roadkill. LOL Make sure if you buy it, it's pre-sliced! We made the mistake of buying a block once, took it to the butcher at the grocery store to slice it and he got mad because the spice/paste on the outside gummed up his slicer! Oops.

Permalink Adelina
October 25, 2010

LOL... I can picture that it would not have gotten smooth... Since LA is pretty populated with Armenians, it's sold in the stores as sliced.

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About

This was a quick weeknight dinner when I found out my brother-in-law and sister-in-law wanted to stop by. They did offer to bring food with them, but I had an itch to create something quick. Besides, sometimes ordering food, or stopping by to get food can take longer than when you try making something at home.

I really liked how these pizzas came together. If you’re vegetarian, you can leave out the basturma. Also, if you have never had basturma, it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Every time I eat it, I feel like I am committing a sin. I mean, you have to really stop from eating it. The sin part is that it’s red salty cured beef and I am pretty sure it’s not that good for you, plus it can make you stink.

No Joke. Read on to find out why…

The spices that are covered around the edges of the meat can make a person stink after having too many. One day, I remember when I was pregnant and came home from work and all I felt like eating was basturma – I just put several slices in a nice loaf of bread and started eating without any other add-ons. After 10 slices, my husband did not want to come near me. Pretty funny right?

I think my tolerance level is about 2 to 3. Also, It’s not cheap – it’s around $10.00/lb. The texture of basturma is similar to a prosciutto, but it’s saltier. However, if you can’t find basturma, prosciutto is a good alternative.