The pita

The Greek pites are the Greek variation of the Arabian bread, smaller and with an oval shape; the name means “folded bun”. It is an easy to make bread and you need few ingredients easy to find as cornflour, water and olive oil. It is particularly adapt to be stuffed with grilled meat, made by hand cheeses, vegetables, octopus and seafood..

Ingredients:

• 300 gr of “00” flour
• 250 cc of water
• 12 gr of yeast ( or 4 gr of dried yeast melt in water at 37°C-39°C)
• A pinch of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• Olive oil

Directions:

Divide the flour in two equal portions and make two mound; in the first make a hole at the centre. Divide also the water equally in two containers; in the first melt the sugar and the salt, while in the other the yeast; don’t mix together salt and yeast, because they wouldn’t do their function. Pour “water with salt and sugar” in the hole of the mound of flour and the yeast in the other mound. Knead them separately until they become smooth, elastic and homogeneous. Continue to knead until you obtain  two thick doughes that don’t attach to your hands. Put together the two doughes and finish to knead only when the dough is smooth.
Put the dough obtained in a container slightly oily.

Cover with a kitchen cloth and make it rise for about an hour in a warm place. Let it in these conditions until it doubles.
Knead the dough again dividing it in parts of 100 gr each and make sheets about 5mm high. Cover these sheets of dough with a kitchen cloth ant leave them aside for about 20 minutes.

Put the sheets on an aluminium foil or greaseproof paper. Brush the surface with water and some few oil and leave aside for other 20 minutes. Control if the dough is still humid and then put it in the oven with the aluminium foils.

Baking:

Put each sheet of dough in PizzaItaly already warm and in a few minutes the bread will be soft and of a light colour, slightly swollen because it is empty inside. Leave them cool in a kitchen cloth to keep the softness.