This Campfire Moroccan Lamb Pizza puts a global spin on an easy dinner! This recipe is made up of soft and doughy crust that’s packed full of flavorful ground lamb, tender veggies, and traditional Moroccan herbs and spices for a medfouna pizza recipe.
Campfire pizza, traditionally known as Medfouna, is a stuffed and baked bread dish similar to stromboli or calzones. It’s made up of a soft, fluffy, and slightly crispy dough that’s stuffed with a hearty meat filling.
Traditional medfouna can be stuffed with a variety of things, but I love this spin made with ground lamb and traditional Moroccan herbs and spices.
This dinner is hearty, flavorful, a total crowd pleaser, and ready in a total of 45 minutes!
Ingredients Needed:
This lamb pizza recipe is made up of a simple homemade dough and a flavorful lamb and veggie filling! Here’s what you’ll need:
For the Dough
- Warm Water, Active Dry Yeast, and Sugar – we’re mixing these three ingredients before mixing the dough to activate the yeast so the dough can rise.
- Flour – I recommend using bread flour for better stability. It helps the dough hold up better next to the filling.
- Olive Oil – adds moisture to the dough.
- Coarse Salt – gives the campfire pizza dough a little bit of flavor.
For the Filling
- Olive Oil – used to sauté the aromatics and veggies for the filling.
- Onion and Pepper – I use a combination of onion, bell pepper, and Guadjillo chili pepper to add a bit of color to the filling.
- Garlic – use freshly minced garlic for the best flavor.
- Ground Lamb – I love the flavor of American ground lamb, but this recipe works great with any ground meat of your choice.
Seasonings – we’re seasoning the filling with a simple blend of cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper.
How to Make Campfire Pizza
This twist on a classic Moroccan meal comes together with a quick 15 minutes of prep!
Make the Dough
First, combine water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl. Mix and let sit for 5 minutes, then add 2 cups of flour and oil. Mix again, then add the remaining flour and salt.
Mix the dough until it’s shaggy and loose, then use your hands to shape the dough until it forms a ball. Cover and set aside.
Make the Filling
Make a fire, arrange your tripod according to the heat, then heat a Dutch oven over the fire for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in the pan, then add in the onions and peppers. Cook until soft, then add the garlic. Remove the mixture from the pan.
In a bowl, combine lamb, spices, and onion mixture.
Assemble and Cook
On a clean, floured work surface, divide the dough into two equal portions. Shape one half into a ball, then press and roll into a flat circle.
Dust a pizza peel or cutting board with cornmeal or flour, then transfer the dough to the pizza peel. Add a scoop of lamb filling to the dough. Spread it evenly, leaving a ¾” border from the edge.
Shape the rest of the dough, then roll it out in the same way you did the first half of the dough. Wet the edge of the lower dough with water, then cover with the second half. Press to seal.
Place the pizza into the Dutch oven, cover, and cook. Check the pizza at 20 minutes, then continue to cook until the top crust is dry and the bottom is crisp.
Can You Make Campfire Pizza in the Oven?
Totally! To bake your lamb pizza, simply prep and assemble as instructed, then bake in the oven at 400ºF for 35-40 minutes. Be sure to watch the pizza carefully to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn while the top crisps up.
Tips and Notes for Campfire Pizza
- Pre-cook the veggies. Veggies release a lot of moisture as they cook. We want to pre-cook the veggies so the excess moisture evaporates. If the moisture is released after the pizza is assembled, you’ll end up with soggy crust.
- When rolling the dough, roll it out so it’s roughly 10” in diameter and about ½” thick. This is the perfect size to cook the filling through and crisp up the crust without it burning.
- Use another meat. I love the way that American ground lamb takes to the North African spices, but feel free to swap it out for ground chicken, turkey, beef, or pork if preferred.
- Add other veggies. You can cook any veggies you like right along with the onion and peppers. Try mushrooms, spinach, broccoli florets, zucchini, shredded carrots, you name it.
- Spice it up. Feel free to play around with flavors in the filling. Try additional spice combinations like harissa paste or Ras el Hanout. Both add wonderful complexity to any dish, and lamb is the perfect vehicle!
What spices are in Ras El Hanout?
Moroccan spice blends are so wonderfully complex and unique. Although Ras El Hanout has many regional variations, the core ingredients typically include sweet and hot paprika, fenugreek, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, cardamom, cumin, coriander seed, peppercorn, and dry turmeric.
Talk about complexity! So genius. I guess in a sense it is sort of North African version of a curry seasoning.
What is in Harissa?
Harissa is another wonderful spice like Ras El Hanout. Honestly, once I discovered both of these seasonings I wanted to use them in everything for a while. They are exotic and mysterious, yet familiar and comforting.
Harissa can be found “wet” or “dry” depending on the ingredients. Typically in the wet version, you find a blend of olive oil with spices, including caraway, cumin, coriander, mint, plus hot chili peppers, and garlic. Some other common ingredients include sun-dried tomatoes and rose petals.
Dry harissa won’t be in olive oil or use sun-dried tomatoes and tends to be heavier on the hot paprika.
Both are fabulous and add wonderful complexity to any dish, but lamb to me is the perfect vehicle for both harissa and Ras el Hanout.
How to Store
This campfire pizza is best right away, but leftovers will last in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or wrapped tightly in the freezer for 2-3 months.
To reheat, thaw in the fridge if frozen, then bake in the oven until heated through.
