PITTA PATTER

Readymade flatbread is rarely as good as your own. Here, Nigel shares a recipe that has re ignited his passion for pitta.

I have been after a really good recipe for flatbreads for some time. A recipe that produces a dough that rises just enough, has a good, yeasty backnote and is effortless to work. I found it this week when Paul Hollywood’s "How to Bake" (Bloomsbury) came through the letterbox. Despite the temptation of icing-splattered pains aux raisins, crisp Cypriot almond biscuits and a carrot and almond cheesecake I went straight for the flatbread recipe and it worked like a dream.
Flatbread was around long before the first oven, needing only a single hot surface on which to cook. This was no doubt provided by the embers of a dying fire where the heat was enough to cook the thin slippers of dough. I have previously baked my flatbreads, pitta, call them what you will, in a hot oven and never been entirely happy with them. This time I took Paul’s frying-pan route and the result was everything I wanted it to be.
The usual way to deal with them is to split and stuff after baking, but I prefer mine stuffed first, so the filling is hot and melting, and becomes part of the bread. The figs that I had been keeping for a tart ending up being chopped and mixed with blue cheese as one of the stuffings; the other was a silky textured filling of roast aubergine, olive oil and thyme.
I let my breads catch a little as they cooked, blistering on the base of the cast-iron pan. The slight blackening introduced a smoky note that worked nicely with both aubergines and the figs. I imagine that is how they would have looked after their time in the embers of a fire, rather than the palid biscuit colour they so often appear in the shops.
This is also the bread I like to tear into jagged pieces and include in a salad. Because of their juiciness, tomatoes were the main ingredient for yesterday’s flatbread salad. Those, and some chunks of peeled cucumber, a handful of coriander leaves and a scattering of oregano my version of a Levantine fattoush.
You might prefer to stuff your breads with mozzarella or olive paste, fried mushrooms or any good melting cheese. Or you might just want a well-made bread to scoop up your hummus. The recipe below is the best I have come across, giving a bread that will make even a good shop-bought version seem suddenly wanting.


RECIPE

Instant yeast 10g
Unsalted butter 30g
Water about 300ml

DIRECTIONS
Put the flour in a large, warm mixing bowl and add the salt and the dried yeast. Add the butter and most of the water, then mix with your hands to bring the mixture together. Gradually add the remaining water until all the flour is mixed in.
Put the dough on a lightly floured board and knead for 5-10 minutes. When the dough feels smooth and silky, place it back in the mixing bowl, cover it with a warm tea towel and leave it in a warm place to rise for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size. Tip the dough on to a floured surface, fold repeatedly until all the air is knocked out of it, then tear it into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.


By Nigel Slater in "The Observer Magazine" August, 28, 2012, London. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa. 

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