Kareesha Asparagus Flatbread

Kareesha (pronounced areesha) is a simple farmer's cheese, much like ricotta. It's normally unsalted so it's a wonderfully versatile cheese in both savory and sweet dishes. I love flatbreads and they were a huge part of the concept behind SuperVega in Beirut as they had a little pizza oven in the kitchen and wanted them to be a part of their concept. So I had to get creative and so you'll find I have flatbreads for all seasons in my recipe collection using the classic Lebanese man'oushe dough as a base.

Ingredients

Recipe serves:

For your flatbread

2 balls of man’oushe dough (see recipe in essentials)

1/2 pound asparagus spears cut in half horizontally

1/4 cup fresh peas

extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

4 slices prosciutto

kareesha base recipe below

ramp pesto recipe below

For the Kareesha Base

200g goat milk kareesha

30g parmesan grated

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

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For the Ramp Pesto

150g or 1 1/2 cups ramps, roughly chopped

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 large garlic clove

35g or 1/2 cup grated parmesan

50g or 3 tablespoons roasted almonds

pinch of red chilli flakes

salt and pepper to taste

3/4 cup olive oil

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Instructions

Heat your oven as high as it will go and place either a pizza stone or upside down sheet pan in the oven to get very hot. Roll out the man’oushe dough into long oval shapes on a lightly floured piece of parchment.

To make both the kareesha you simply stir all of the ingredients together in a bowl. To make the ramp pesto, blend the ingredients together in a food processor until smooth (or almost smooth, a little texture is never a bad thing).

Now spread out a thick layer of the kareesha base over the dough leaving a thin border around the edges. Arrange the cut asparagus over the top and divide the peas between the two. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil before placing them in the oven when it’s at least 220/450 degrees. Cook for 12-15 minutes, keeping an eye that they don’t burn. Arrange prosciutto on top and drizzle with the ramp pesto when they come out of the oven.

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