Za’atar and Feta Pizza

A few weeks ago I discovered a new local restaurant with a wood fired oven. With the quality of ingredients on the pizza and the smoky flavour from the oven, I was sold. Since then, I’ve been having sporadic bouts of pizza craving. 

When I’m low on supplies, I just stand in front of my refrigerator and stare at it, hoping something materialises. This time around I gaped until my mind paired the tub of feta with the za’atar. Perfect! I’d mix the za’atar with some extra virgin olive oil until it is spreadable then brush it on some pizza dough (oh, the craving!) top it off with some crumbled feta. Why didn’t I so this sooner?! I used the whole wheat pizza dough recipe I got off Oprah’s website and made two thin crust pizzas. After taking a bite from the first one, I realised it needed a kick, so I added some chopped jalapenos to the next one I made and finally achieved the flavour I was looking for.

1. Roll out the pizza dough thinner than you’d like your pizza crust, because the bread’s going to rise.
2. Transfer the dough to the baking stone or a thick baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil and za’atar. Add enough olive oil until you get a spreadable mixture (since sometimes the za’atar contain roasted wheat which tends to absorb the oil).
4. Generously brush the rolled out pizza dough with the za’atar mixture.
5. Dot the pizza with crumbled feta.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes in a preheated oven set at 250°C/500°F or as high as your oven can go (if it’s higher make sure to watch the pizza closely because it’ll be done in no time!)
7. Slice it and serve.