Mozzarella Pesto Naan Bread (no-yeast)

About naan bread.

Steps for making no-yeast naan bread dough:

• Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and add wet ingredients (images 1 and 2). Start by mixing with a fork or wooden spoon until you have a rough mixture.
• Knead for about 5 minutes (with a stand mixer or by hand on a floured counter) until you have a slightly sticky but smooth dough (image 3).
• Shape into balls and let rest for 1 hour (image 4).

• Cheese: it’s important to use a cheese that melts well. Mozzarella (the one used for pizza is the best) is a really good one, but whatever you use for your favorite grilled cheese sandwich will work.
• Pesto: You can go with not-so-traditional pestos like the one here – more ideas here for other Condiments & Sauces – and even use purchased ones.
• Grilled veggies are perfect too. Just remember you need the final filled bread to be flat so that it cooks evenly. It might be a good idea to process or cut in small bits the vegetables first.

About pesto filling:

The word pesto is very loosely used here, this was more a mixture of green onions, almonds, and parsley with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Maybe we should say paste?

Maybe, but pesto or paste will not change the awesomeness of this filled pieces of dough, grilled on the stove and eaten right there, almost hot to the touch.

Make your own fillings, most Mediterranean pizza toppings will go well, or something like this Chorizo Tomato filling. or the Sun-dried Tomato Pesto. The original recipe, from this wonderful blog, uses garlic scapes, something I can’t yet find here.

Use a tablespoon for each bread, it is enough. Using too much will hamper the right cooking of the dough.

What type of pan is used for grilling this bread?

Steak irons (similar to cast-iron steak skillets) are flat surfaces with ridges, two handles but no sides, made of cast iron, used to cook mainly steak, obviously.  I live in Argentina and we consume a huge amount of meat, so having a steak iron was a regular staple in all kitchens when I was growing up. All made from good, sturdy iron, meant to last forever, literally. 

So the grilling of the filled naan is very easy, not even smoke because you don’t need to use oil.

You can drizzle some right before eating the bread, and maybe sprinkle with some coarse salt. What’s unavoidable is to use a good melting cheese, like the mozzarella I used here, which is the type we label pizza mozzarella, not fancy but buttery in flavor and great for melting.

Tips and Tricks for this recipe:

Mozzarella Pesto Filled Naan Bread

★★★★★ 5 from 10 reviews

• Author: Paula Montenegro
• Prep Time: 90
• Cook Time: 20
• Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
• Yield: 8 breads 1x
• Category: Bread
• Method: Grilling
• Cuisine: Indian

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Description

A fabulous filled naan bread. Made without yeast, it comes together fast and can be grilled in a skillet!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

For the naan bread:

• 5 to 5 1/2 cups (700-800g) unbleached all-purpose flour + more if needed
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup (115g) natural, plain yogurt, at room t°
• 1 large egg, at room t°
• 1/4 cup (60g) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups water (room t°)

For the pesto:

• 1 cup coarsely chopped green onions (about 2)
• 1 cup fresh parsley leaves
• ½ cup whole almonds
• Olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 9 or 10 slices mozzarella cheese

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Instructions

For the naan dough:

1. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer put all dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix lightly with your hand or a spoon.
2. Make a well in the center (or use another bowl) and mix the wet ingredients: yogurt, egg, oil, and half the water.
3. Add to flour mixture and mix with a spoon until combined. It will be sticky. Add the rest of the water and up to 1/4 cup extra flour until and mix well.
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for a few minutes, until the dough comes together and is smooth but slightly sticky. Or mix with the dough hook in a stand mixer until it leaves the sides of the bowl but is still somewhat sticky to the touch.
5. You can add an extra tablespoon flour if too wet, but try to work with the amounts given in the recipe. Sometimes when a dough is sticky we want to add more flour, but that will make the bread tough and dry.
6. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, put on a floured surface (I use a wooden board) and let rest, lightly covered with oiled plastic wrap, for 1 hour. The plastic must be covering loosely the dough as if it was a kitchen towel.
7. In the meantime, have the cheese cut in thin slices and make the pesto.

For the pesto:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, add green onions, parsley, almonds and 2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil.
2. Process until it begins to turn into a paste, adding more oil as necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble:

1. When ready to assemble the bread, preheat the steak iron, grill or a cast iron skillet.
2. Fill each piece of dough with a tablespoon of pesto and a slice of cheese to cover it. Close in a bundle, flatten with a rolling pin or your hands (like I did), and cook as many at a time as will fit in the skillet or steak iron.
3. You don’t need to oil the skillet or steak iron.
4. Do it over low/medium heat so the dough has time to bake properly before the outside is burned.
5. Transfer to a wooden board, cut in half and eat immediately.

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Notes

My tips and tricks for this recipe:

• Dough: make sure you take into account the resting time. The dough is somewhat sticky, so refrain from adding too much extra flour, It will be less sticky by the time you have to assemble the breads.
• Filling: Don’t use more than 1 tablespoon of pesto and 1-2 thin sliced of cheese. If the final breads are too thick they will not cook properly inside.
• Grilling: you can use a cast iron steak skillet as I used or a regular one, like the ones used for baking skillet cookies. And you don’t need to butter or oil it. This bread produces no smoke while cooking. Or use an outdoor grill.
• Freezing: Unfortunately, these do not reheat well after freezing, probably because they’re not yeasted.

About the fillings:

Cheese: it’s important to use a cheese that melts well. Mozzarella (the one used for pizza is the best) is a really good one, but whatever you use for your favorite grilled cheese sandwich will work.

Pesto: You can go with not-so-traditional pestos like the one here – more ideas here for other Condiments & Sauces – and even use purchased ones.

Grilled veggies are perfect too. Just remember you need the final filled bread to be flat so that it cooks evenly. It might be a good idea to process or cut in small bits the vegetables first.

Keywords: cheese naan, naan bread, filled naan bread

• adapted from Feasting at Home

Paula Montenegro

A baker for more than 30 years, I love testing recipes and sharing the best of what I find. I'm mostly self-taught with some time spent in baking school. I believe we can all be bakers and cooks with the right instructions and simple ingredients. If you're craving easy recipes with amazing results, you're in the right place. Let's get into the kitchen!