Brstjjy

Pita

Pita at the souq on Khaled ibn al-Waleed street, in the old city of Nablus, West Bank
Type	Flatbread
Place of origin	Middle East[1]
Main ingredients	Flour, water, yeast, salt
Cookbook: Pita   Media: Pita

Pita (/ˈpɪtə/ or US: /ˈpiːtə/)^[2], sometimes spelled pitta (mainly UK), is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely-known version with an interior pocket, also known as Arabic bread, Syrian bread, and other names, as well as pocketless versions such as the Greek pita, used to wrap souvlaki.^{[3][1][4][5][6]}

Pita bread has roots in the prehistoric wheat-based flatbreads of the region. The pocket-pita bread is a more recent development, likely from Egypt or the Levant.^[1]

Etymology

The first mention of the word in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1936.^[7] The English word is borrowed from Modern Greek πίτα, in turn from the Byzantine Greek πίτα "bread, cake, pie, pitta" (attested in 1108)^[7] and possibly from the Ancient Greek πίττα or πίσσα "pitch/resin" (for the gloss),^[8][9] or Ancient Greek πικτή (pikte), "fermented pastry", which may have passed to Latin as "picta" cf. pizza.^[10][11] It was received into Levantine Arabic (as fatteh, since Arabic lacks the sound /p/).^[7] Other hypotheses trace the word back to the Classical Hebrew word patt פת (literally "a morsel of bread").^[1] It is spelled like the Aramaic pittəṭā/pittā (פיתה), from which it was received into Byzantine Greek (see above). Hypotheses also exist for Germanic^[12] or Illyrian intermediaries.^[13]

The word has been borrowed by Turkish as pide,^[14] and appears in the Balkan languages as Serbo-Croatian pita, Romanian pită, Albanian pite, Kosovo Albanian pitalka, Bulgarian pitka or pita. In Arabic, the phrase خبز البيتا (pita bread) is sometimes used; other names are simply خبز 'khubz, bread' or الخبز العربي 'Arab bread' or خبز الكماج 'al-kimaj bread'.^[15] In Egypt, it is called ʿaish (عيش) or ʿaish baladi (عيش بلدي).^[16] "'Aish" means life in Arabic, highlighting the importance of pita bread in Egyptian culture.^[16] In Greek it is called aravikē pita (lit. 'Arabic pastry').

Preparation

Pita baking in Nazareth, Israel

Most pita are baked at high temperatures (450–475 °F (232–246 °C)), which turns the water in the dough into steam, thus causing the pita to puff up and form a pocket.^[17] When removed from the oven, the layers of baked dough remain separated inside the deflated pita, which allows the bread to be opened to form a pocket. However, pita is sometimes baked without pockets and is called "pocket-less pita". Regardless of whether it is made at home or in a commercial bakery, pita is proofed for a very short time—only 15 minutes.^[18]

Modern commercial pita bread is prepared on advanced automatic lines. These lines have high production capacities, processing 100,000 pound (45,000 kg) silos of flour at a time and producing thousands of loaves per hour. The ovens used in commercial baking are much hotter than traditional clay ovens—800–900 °F (427–482 °C)—so each loaf is only baked for one minute. The pita are then air-cooled for about 20 minutes on conveyor belts before being shipped immediately or else stored in commercial freezers kept at a temperature of 10 °F (−12 °C).^[17]

Culinary use

Pita can be used to scoop sauces or dips, such as hummus, or to wrap kebabs, gyros, or falafel in the manner of sandwiches. It can also be cut and baked into crispy pita chips.

In Turkish cuisine, the word pide may refer to three different styles of bread: a flatbread similar to that eaten in Greece and Arab countries, a pizza-like dish where the filling is placed on the (often boat-shaped) dough before baking,^{[19][20][21][22]} and Ramazan pide. The first type of pide is used to wrap various styles of kebab, while the second is topped with cheese, ground meat, or other fresh or cured meats, and/or vegetables. Regional variations in the shape, baking technique, and toppings create distinctive styles for each region.

In Cyprus, pita is typically rounder, fluffier and baked on a cast iron skillet. It is used for souvlakia, sheftalia, halloumi with lountza, and gyros. In Greece the word pita means "pastry" and is usually used for various cakes and pastries like spanakopita (spinach pie) and karydopita (walnut cake) unrelated to the English language "pita" flatbread.^[23] such as the round καρβέλι karvéli or the oblong φραντζόλα frantzóla. This style of pita flatbread, in the English language meaning of the word, is almost exclusively used as a wrap for pita-souvlaki or gyros with usually garnished with some combination of tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onions, and french fries.

• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Pide baking in wood fired oven in Istanbul
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Hummus platter served with pide near Jaffa in Tel Aviv
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Karadeniz pidesi from Turkey topped with kaşar cheese
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Palestinian breakfast with falafel, humus, torshi and pita bread
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Ramadan pide
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Shwarama in Jerusalem
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Gyro pide wrap
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Baked pita on conveyor in Tell Rifaat, Syria
  

  
  

  
  


• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Kebab served over pide with pilav
  

  
  

  
  

See also

References

External links

• 
  The dictionary definition of pita at Wiktionary