History & Origin
Pide belongs to the belt of stone-oven breads that runs from the Balkans through Anatolia to the Levant, and the word shares an ancestor with the Greek pita. Turkey's most famous version comes from the Black Sea city of Samsun, where it is baked long and narrow and served with an egg cracked on top in the final minute.
Ingredients
Yeasted wheat dough with olive oil and a little milk. Fillings: white cheese and kaşar, minced lamb with tomato and pepper, spinach, sucuk, or egg. Butter brushed on the crust as it leaves the oven.
Traditional Preparation
Dough is proved, hand-stretched into a long oval, filled down the centre and the edges folded up and pinched into points at each end. Baked directly on the oven floor at high heat for a few minutes until the base blisters and the cheese browns.
Regional Variations
Kuşbaşılı (with cubed meat), kıymalı (minced lamb), kaşarlı (cheese), ıspanaklı (spinach), yumurtalı (finished with an egg), and Samsun-style, which is the longest and narrowest of them all. On our menu the pide rotation runs Beef Pide, Veggie Pide and Trio Cheese Pide, each shaped and baked the same boat-shaped way with a different filling.
Pairings
Ayran, black tea, a bowl of olives, or a plate of mezes if it is dinner rather than lunch.
How It Is Served
Cut across into thick slices, hot, with butter still glossy on the crust.
Did You Know
Pide and lahmacun come out of the same oven but are different animals: lahmacun is unleavened, paper-thin and eaten rolled by hand in two minutes; pide is a leavened, filled bread you sit down to with a knife.
Turkish Pide at SkaZka Bali
SkaZka Bali bakes pide to order on the floor of the stone oven — Beef Pide, Veggie Pide and Trio Cheese Pide are the standing rotation, each brushed with butter and cut at the table. Lahmacun, the thin rolled 'Turkish pizza,' comes from the same oven for guests who want the crisp, unleavened version instead.