April 19, 2022 - 7:46am
What do you like on your pide?
Lately I've been thinking of branching out from pizza so came across a couple of articles on making Turkish pide. The longer, more narrow dough shaping seems like a more efficient use of the space on top of my stone.
There seems to be a wide variety of possible toppings commonly eaten on pide. What are some of yours?
Not really an answer, but I also had this though about more efficient use of my steel. And whether making a rectangular or at least an elongated pizza would make sense... Maybe got the idea from the local pizza place, that makes long pizzas that they cut into 3-4 pieces for take away. Curious what comes out of this thread!
But not that familiar with it. I have made leavened kamut flatbread baked with a mixture of olive oil and za'atar on top. I think it's lovely and regularly just dip in toasted sourdough into za'atar infused olive oil.
It looks like pide may not be common here. No matter, the Internet abounds with recipes so here are a few ideas I've found that I think I will try with my family.
From doing searches there appear to be about as many ways of topping pide as there are of topping pizzas so there's an enormous amount of choices.
Spinach with kasar cheese (or mozzarrella), onion, olive oil, and cumin
The spinach is wilted first then spinkled on the dough with the cheese and onions sprinkled atop that. Lightly drizzle the oil and seasonings over all.
Roasted eggplant, sweet red pepper, olive oil, and garlic
Saute eggplant slices in oil until lightly golden. Arrange on the dough then sprinkle on the chopped sweet peppers and garlic. Lightly drizzle on the olive oil unless you have enough from the eggplant already.
Sujuk sausage (or smoked beef sausage), kasar cheese (or mozzarella) garlic, sumac (if I can find it), and cumin.
The sausage is partially cooked then chopped. Spread over the dough then sprinkle the rest over the top.
Ground beef with fresh chopped tomatoes, parsley, green peppers, onions, and olive oil.
Most of the recipes I find have the ground beef going on raw, but the photos of the finished product do not look appealing to me. I believe I will lightly brown the meat first then spread it over the dough with the chopped tomatoes on top then the rest.
Spinach, feta cheese, black olives, onions, olive oil
Lightly wilt the spinach, spread over dough, then sprinkle on the rest.
Sprinkling finishes and garnishes - these are optional
Dried oregano
Sesame seeds
Sumac
Chopped fresh parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
I work in a university town so we have exotic (to us Americans) grocery stores around though Middle Eastern/Mediterranean are mostly new to me. I'll have to do some searching to see if I can find the sumac, and the Turkish sausage and cheeses. If not I'll substitute where I must.
"Dried oregano, Sesame seeds, Sumac, Chopped fresh parsley."
That's a kind of za'atar, which is common in Middle Eastern grocery stores. One store local to me had two kinds, green and red - Ziyad brand.
Accrding to Wiki, there is no one definitive recipe for za'atar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za%27atar
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ziyad+za%27atar&t=fpas&iar=shopping&iax=shopping&ia=shopping
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To buy just sumac, you might want to copy out the Arabic translation of sumac in order to make it easier to communicate. For instance, take a screen shot of this result:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=english+to+arabic+sumac
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I have a copy of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/500-Pizzas-Flatbreads-Flatbread-Compendium/dp/1416205225/
It has a lot of international recipes for flatbread, it also includes a lot of variations for toppings too.
Under $7 used, incl shipping, on amazon's used book marketplace, from US-based sellers.
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HTH.
Well, this took me off on another Wikipedia adventure. It appears the Middle Eastern sumac berries are a different species than our native Winged Sumac, but I believe they can be used the same way. This fall when they fruit again I'm going to try it. Winged Sumac is a common plant on my property.
I'm putting za'atar on my shopping list. It appears to be a spice blend with a wide variety of possible herbs in it.
19 entries that use za'atar:
https://www.allrecipes.com/search/results/?search=&IngIncl=za%27atar
One recipe on how to make it:
https://www.allrecipes.com/search/results/?search=za%27atar
Make za'atar yourself.
Equal parts dried oregano, thyme, marjoram, sumac, roasted sesame seeds and coarse salt to taste. Grind in a mortar and pestle.
Plenty of recipes online.
usually is the key ingredient in za'tar. It seems odd when it's not included in a za'tar recipe.
Yippee
Sumac.
Here's a page that shows the ingredients, and a sample recipe on the back of the Ziyad Thyme Za'atar package. May take a while to load.
https://www.shipt.com/up/ziyad-green-zaatar/af2c76e2-8801-69a2-44e3-a97e8586d384
or:
https://dsom-imager-prod.shipt.com/af2c76e2-8801-69a2-44e3-a97e8586d384/0-ffeee2b33a085d70538b6533f48cd162.png
I buy this one.
Sesame seeds, DRIED SUMAC (sumac, salt), dried oregano, cumin, SALT (sodium chloride, sodium hexacyanoferrate), dried marjoram