I almost forgot I’ve been on vacation. The last few weeks were swirling. It’s not finished yet. However, I raise my head towards the light and hang on memories of clear water, the beach, olive trees and figs. Among them, a pitta, a unleavened type of bread, used to wrap meat and other ingredients which form gyros pitta, their Greek fast-food. After a bit of research, I found out that a similar bread was made in some villages in Ardeal when people ran out of real bread (they didn’t go to the oven whenever they felt like it and if they ran out of bread for a day or two, these flat breads baked on the griddle were a solution) and it was called “lipie”. Here’s how I made it:
I measured four cups of white flour. I soaked 10 grams of raw yeast in a cup of lukewarm water with a teaspoon of sugar. In another cup of lukewarm water I dissolved a teaspoon of salt. I then put all of these in a container, first mixing the flour with the yeast and then adding the salted water. I added three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and I started kneading.
I kneaded for about 6 minutes. It resulted a simple dough, just as the one for bread or pizza. Or flat bread. I told you, this world is one big village: we all know the same things, in one form or the other.
I let the dough to grow rise for 35-40 minutes.
After that, I kneaded it five minutes more and split it into eight balls slightly larger than the size of a big egg.
I stretched the dough into round sheets, the size of a medium plate and half centimeter thick.
I baked some in the skillet, others in the oven, in a tray smeared with a bit of oil (I also smeared the skillet after each pitta, as with pancakes). The differences weren’t significant.
To prevent the pitta from becoming hard, cover it while it’s still warm and store it in a cool place. It can be eaten cold or hot (you can heat it rather fast on the griddle, in the skillet or in the oven) as a bread replacement.
That’s all. Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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facebook.com/oana.bodnariuc