Outback Lamb & Pumpkin Pizza
A gourmet feast that can be made from scratch or thrown together from leftovers
Panic stations!
Me that is not you. It's new recipe day and I'm not organised! I did consider fleetingly writing out my recipe and then ripping a similar picture of the internet (Evidently I'm not the first to do a lamb pizza!) but making stuff up has not proven to be a successful strategy for other bloggers (hello Belle Gibson) so it was a moment of madness idea and then I moved on.
At Outback Lamb we do love to keep things real and to be as authentic as we can. We do that by sharing stories of who we are and what we do on the farm, why we do it and what our philosophies are. With our food, it's the same, so I kind of had to pan that idea and get myself organized.
Which brings me to today’s recipe. I hope I have captured for you that authentic feeling I know we all get, about an hour before dinner and the meat is still in the freezer. Because I was a little stuck for ingredients I just had to go with what was on hand. Pumpkin from the garden, cheeses from the fridge (I actually used bocconcini balls) I had no rocket leaves so went with baby beet leaves from the last of the beetroots in the garden instead. It all came together quite beautifully. A word to the wise – go easy on the sriracha sauce if anyone is adverse to their pizza having a spicy kicker!
Today’s offering is homemade Outback Lamb pizza and it can be made totally from scratch like this one, or else you can simply utilise last night’s roast left overs and whip out the bought pizza bases - or Lebanese flat bread for a quick cheat.
PIZZA BASES
I have a bread machine with a dough setting so I just followed the machine's instruction, but there are 100's of recipes online for pizza dough. I've even seen an excellent one using cauliflower for those who prefer gluten free (did I mention we are wheat and sheep farmers?) Alternatively, premade/bought bases are fine - but for a minimal effort homemade pizza bases are well worth trying.
Here is a link to the pizza dough recipe that I used
INGREDIENTS FOR SLOW COOKED LAMB SHOULDER
1 lamb shoulder
1 tbsp olive oil 2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp ground cumin 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 cinnamon quill 1 cup white wine 1 cup chicken stock
INGREDIENTS FOR VEGETABLE TOPPING
500g diced pumpkin 2 red onions cut into wedges 1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sumac
INGREDIENTS FOR PIZZA TOPPING
4 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs sriracha sauce
Feta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Grated parmesan cheese
Rocket leaves
METHOD - COOKING THE LAMB
Preheat oven to 150˚C. Combine oil, paprika, cumin and garlic in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and then rub over lamb. Place lamb in a heavy casserole dish or slow cooker, add cinnamon, wine and stock. Roast lamb for 3½ to 4 hours, basting every hour, or until very tender and falling off the bone. Cool slightly and shred. Toss shredded lamb with some cooking juices.
METHOD - COOKING THE PUMPKIN & ONION
While the meat is slow cooking, place pumpkin and onions in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and sumac. Toss to coat and then place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Roast for approximately 45 minutes.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Increase oven to 200˚C. Mix tomato paste and sriracha together and then spread over pizza base. Top with lamb, pumpkin and onions. Scatter the mozzarella and feta over the top. Top with the grated parmesan and then bake for around 15 minutes or until cheese is golden and bases are crisp. Top with rocket and serve immediately.
