Mediterranean Ham & Feta Wrap Pizza
Scratch-made tomato sauce, crumbled feta, strips of ham, and olives — all on a whole wheat tortilla that bakes into a crispy base in 8 minutes. This is a wrap pizza that earns its name.
The sauce carries this one. Tomato paste simmered in olive oil with halved cherry tomatoes, dried oregano, and thyme until it thickens into a concentrated, savory base. That five-ingredient sauce does more than jarred ever could.
A heap of fresh arugula after baking, and you have a 476-calorie meal with 30g of protein that comes together faster than most delivery orders arrive.
Ingredients
- feta cheese, crumbled 2 ounces
- cherry tomatoes 12
- ham 4 slices
- onion 0.25
- olives 4
- olive oil 0.5 tablespoon
- thyme, dried 1 teaspoon
- oregano, dried 1 teaspoon
- tomato paste 1 tablespoon
- water 4 tablespoons
- tortilla wrap, whole wheat 1
- arugula 1 handful
Method
-
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
-
Crumble the feta into a small bowl. Cut the tomatoes in half. Slice the ham into strips, the onion into thin half rings and the olives into slices.
-
Heat the oil in a pan. Add half of the tomatoes along with some salt and pepper and half of the thyme and oregano. Cook the tomatoes for 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste along with the water and let it simmer on low heat until the tomatoes are soft. Mash with a fork to make a sauce.
-
Spread the wrap with the tomato sauce. Then top with the remaining tomatoes, ham, feta, onion and olives. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and the remaining thyme and oregano.
-
Bake the wrap pizza for 8 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
-
Serve the wrap pizza with arugula.
Cook the tomato paste directly in the olive oil for the full 3 minutes in Step 3 before adding water. Tomato paste delivers roughly 2.5 times the bioavailable lycopene of fresh tomatoes, and cooking it in fat maximizes how much your body can absorb (Gärtner et al., 1997).
The feta sits right on the cherry tomatoes while they bake. Research found that calcium from dairy can reduce lycopene absorption by up to 83% — but that applies to the tomatoes in direct contact. The sauce underneath was already cooked in olive oil, locking its lycopene into fat before the feta showed up (Fielding et al., 2005).
Fielding et al., 2005 — British Journal of Nutrition · DOIWhy This Works
Behind this recipe
Why make the sauce from scratch instead of using jarred?
Flavor control and nutrient density. Cooking tomato paste in olive oil for a few minutes concentrates the flavors and creates a thicker base than most jarred sauces. Paste also delivers roughly 2.5 times the bioavailable lycopene of fresh tomatoes, and cooking it in fat helps your body absorb more of it.
Can I use a regular flour tortilla instead of whole wheat?
Yes. Any wrap or tortilla works. Whole wheat adds more fiber and gives the edges a nuttier flavor when they crisp up, but a regular flour tortilla bakes just as well at this temperature.
Does the feta affect how I absorb nutrients from the tomatoes?
It can. Calcium from dairy can reduce lycopene absorption by up to 83% when eaten alongside tomato sources. In this recipe, the feta sits directly on the cherry tomatoes during baking. The tomato sauce underneath, though, was cooked in olive oil before the feta was added — so its lycopene was already dissolved into fat.
