Pita
- In the Balkans and Greece, pita also refers to various pastries also called burek .
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| Region or state | Middle East, Balkans, Greece |
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| Main ingredients | Flour and water |
Pita or pitta (/[invalid input: 'icon']ˈpɪtə/ PI-tə) is a round pocket bread widely consumed in many Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Balkan cuisines. It is prevalent in Greece, the Balkans, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Turkey. The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough. As the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.
Etymology
The English word is borrowed from modern Hebrew, Modern Greek, and perhaps Balkan languages. These all probably come from the Byzantine Greek πίτα 'bread, cake, pie, pitta', but that word's further etymology is "uncertain and disputed".[1] The word has now spread to Turkish as pide,[2] in Balkan languages: Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian pita, Romanian pită, Albanian pite, Bulgarian pitka, Modern Hebrew pita via the Judaeo-Spanish pita. Though the Hebrew word pita is spelled like the Aramaic pittəṯā/pittā, which is related to Levantine Arabic fatteh, they are not connected historically.[1]
Origin
Pita is now the western name for the Arabic bread called khubz (ordinary bread). It does however have other names in other western countries such as in Germany where it is sometimes known as brottasche (bread bag/pocket). Other breads of Arab or Egyptian, or kumaj (a Turkish loanword properly meaning a bread cooked in ashes), all baked in a brick oven. It is slightly leavened wheat bread, flat, either round or oval, and variable in size. The tenth-century Arab cookery book, Kitab al-Tabikh by ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, includes six recipes for khubz, all baked in a tannur oven.[3] Historians believe its history extends far into antiquity, since flatbreads in general, whether leavened or not, are among the most ancient breads, needing no oven or even utensil for their baking. The first evidence of flat breads occur in and around Amorite Damascus.[citation needed]
Culinary use
Pita is used to scoop sauces or dips such as hummus and to wrap kebabs, gyros or falafel in the manner of sandwiches. Most pita are baked at high temperatures (450 °F or 232 °C), causing the flattened rounds of dough to puff up dramatically. When removed from the oven, the layers of baked dough remain separated inside the deflated pita, which allows the bread to be opened into pockets, creating a space for use in various dishes.
Much of pita's popularity in the Western world since the 1970s is due to expanded use of the pocket for a type of sandwich. Instead of using pita to scoop foods, people fill the pocket with various ingredients to form a sandwich. These are sometimes called "pita pockets" or "pocket pitas".
In Greece, greek pita is a major component of pita-souvlaki and pitogyro. These types of sandwiches involve the wrapping of souvlaki or gyros with tzatziki, tomatoes, onion,sometimes french fries and condiments into a pita bread. Pita has a soft, chewy texture and is pocketless. Plain pita is used for serving some kebabs on it such as Döner kebap, İskender kebap, Şiş kebab, Adana kebabı, Urfa Kebabı, Yoğurtlu kebap (Kebab with yogurt) and Tokat kebabı and making some sanchwiches.Also made in Greece are the pizza-like foods called lahmacun are made with round-shaped pieces of thin Arabian pita dough topped with finely chopped meat and herbs before baking untill crispy.
In Turk local pita is called pide which also refers to another pizza-like food made of pide dough topped with different ingredients. Regional variations in the shape, baking technique, and topped materials create distinctive styles for each region. Such pides can include chicken, beef, cheese, potatoes, garlic and many other ingredients.
Pita chips are a baked bread made from pita bread, often seasoned. They are crunchier and thicker than most chips. They are available in different flavours and can be a substitute for regular tortilla chips.
Customs
In Palestinian and Israeli cuisine, it is the custom to eat almost everything in a pita, from falafel, lamb or chicken shawarma and kebab, omelettes such as shakshouka (eggs and tomatoes) and hummus and other salads.
See also
References
- ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, April 2009 s.v. 'pita'
- ^ Linda Civitello (2007). Cuisine and culture: a history of food and people (Paperback ed.). Wiley. p. 98. ISBN 0471741728.
- ^ Nawal Nasrallah, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth Century Baghdadi Cookbook, Brill: Leiden, the Netherlands, 2007. pp. 118–126.
External links
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