my jerusalem kitchen

I hope my grandma isn’t following my blog. I’m scared what might happen if she finds out that after finally learning how to make khoresht fesenjan, a Persian delicacy, I went and turned it into a pizza sauce.

When my fiance, Adam, first met my dad’s family at a Hannukah party, my uncle brought out 12-year-old whisky. When Adam poured his portion into a cup of hot coffee, my aunt locked eyes with him and, in front of everyone as only true Wilner embarrassment can be achieved, said disapprovingly, “Did you just pour 12-year-old whiskey into your coffee?” Well, that is a little bit how I felt pouring this sauce onto my whole wheat dough: like I was wearing Manolo Blahniks with a bright red OLD NAVY sweatshirt. But I was very, very wrong. This was fantastic pairing of flavors and cuisines.

Now, there is no way around one thing: this is a dessert pizza through and through. But the chewy, whole wheat dough really compliments the nuttiness of the walnuts and the tang of the pomegranate syrup is mitigated by the warmth and sweetness of the pear slivers and softened by a pinch of cinnamon.

What you need:

This recipe for no-knead pizza dough

This recipe for khoresht fesenjan (exclude the meat, salt, onion and turmeric, and divide the proportions in half)

1 pear; sliced into slivers

1 pinch of cinnamon

olive oil for drizzling

How to do it:

**Quick Note: if you want your sauce to have a nuttier taste to it, you do not have to cook the sauce until the oils from the walnuts are visible. Though it definitely tastes less bitter to do so, there is still a very nutty flavor that can be achieved in a shorter period of time. But taste as you go, by all means. This is pizza, after all.

Prepare your dough as described in the recipe link above. Once you have rolled it out, put it into a 500 F oven on the bottom for 5-6 minutes or until the bottom has become golden and the dough has a few bubbles. Remove from the oven and pop any bubbles. With the dough still atop the parchment paper, spread about 3-4 tblsp of the sauce onto your dough (sauce recipe provided in link above), being careful not to overload the center of the dough or it will get too soggy. You may have some sauce left over. Place your pear slices around the perimeter of the dough, forming concentric circles of pear slices. Put back into the oven on the middle rack for another 7 minutes or so, or until the dough feels stiff and not flimsy. Enjoy!