Finally, Delicious Gluten-Free Matzah Pizza
Crispy. Savory. Ready to get you through the rest of Passover
I’m pretty sure I remember something in the Passover story about how matzah pizza got our ancestors through their escape from Egypt. It certainly helps us get through eight days of Passover. It’s comforting, delicious, and quick to make. Eat it with a salad full of greens and herbs, and you’re even getting some of the fiber we tend to be lacking this week––at least for those who don’t eat kitniyot.
But if you can’t eat gluten, matzah pizza is a little more difficult. Gluten-free matzah tends to fall apart more easily than regular matzah, so its pizza gets soggy and saggy and sad. And that’s if you can find a sheet of matzah that isn’t broken in the first place.
Gluten-free matzah brings other Passover challenges too––and not just because, for religious Jews, it doesn’t fulfill the halakhic requirement of matzah. Some brands get around this by labeling the gluten-free matzah “matzah-style squares.” I adapt the matzah brocha in the seder to “…al achilat matzahstylesquares.” I’m sure it isn’t halakhically correct, but a) I’m not religious, and b) it’s fun to say.
But back to pizza. I’ve combined tips from a few sources––about both gluten-free and regular––and I think I’ve figured it out.
An article going around this week about regular matzah pizza suggests pre-baking the sheet of matzah with some cheese grated on it, to give a more stable and less-soggy foundation.
A year or two ago, someone suggested using two sheets of matzah rather than one for gluten-free matzah. But the bottom matzah always felt like it was just holding up the soggy top matzah.
I thought, what if we combined these tips––and improvised some other ideas?
Here’s what I did:
- Preheated the oven to 450.
- On a baking sheet with aluminum foil, I stacked two sheets of Yehuda gluten-free onion matzah [-style squares]. The onion-flavor matzah seems to hold together better than the regular, and it has a nice flavor for this.
- I lightly grated mozzarella twice: once in between the two matzot, and once on the top matzah.
- I pre-baked this stack of cheesy matzot for a few minutes until the cheese melted. (Note: at this point, the top matzah bent up a bit at the edges. That’s fine.)
- I took it out of the oven and added a sweet-and-tangy tomato sauce, grated parmesan, grated mozzarella, and pieces of fresh mozzarella. I drizzled olive oil and grated black pepper on top.
- For my pizza (photo), I also added sautéed oyster mushrooms––the first ones of spring a friend and I found in a park the day before. Sliced fresh button mushrooms or other toppings would also have been delicious.
- I baked the pizza at 450 until the cheese started to bubble and brown.
- Ideally, I would sprinkle fresh basil and parsley on top when I took it out of the oven.
- I let it cool a few minutes before eating.
The matzah sheets fuse together in the final pizza, giving you just enough crust to do its job.
Does this work for you? Do you have any other tips for gluten-free matzah pizza? Let me know! And happy Passover.
