About Pita
Pita The Great
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Retail: $9.95 (20% off!)
(Cooking.com Cookbooks)
Best Seller! THE book on baking pita plus 100 recipes for dips, fillings & toppings. 176 pgs.
Merchant: Cooking.com Cookbooks
The Food of Israel
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Retail: $18.95 (29% off!)
(Overstock Books)
Presents a unique compilation of recipes representing the various cultures of the Holy Land, with dishes that reflect the influences of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia and that range from pita bread with za'atar seasoning to ARabic Malawac Copyr
Merchant: Overstock Books
Pita (also called pitta or pita bread or Turkish pide bread, Cyrillic пита) is a round flat wheat bread made with yeast. Pita and other flat or pocket bread is traditional in many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines from North Africa through the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula to India and Afghanistan and is believed to have originated in Ancient Syria. It is also commonly called Lebanese, Syrian or Arabic bread, especially in the Arab world, Israel, and communities with Arab immigrant populations.
Eating habits
Pita is used to scoop sauces or dips such as hummus and to wrap sandwiches such as kebabs, gyros or falafel. Most pita breads are baked at high temperatures (+700°F) causing the flattened rounds of dough to puff up dramatically. Once removed from the oven, the baked dough remains separated inside the deflated pita. This allows pita bread to be sliced and opened into pockets, creating a space for various ingredients to be stuffed inside.
In Turkey, pita (called pide) is used to make a pizza-like food similar to Lahmacun. Pide dough is shaped like a canoe and topped with meats, vegetables, and sometimes egg, then cooked in a fire-oven. It is occasionally eaten with raw greens. During Ramadan, a form of pide is sold in place of traditional Turkish bread; it is topped with black seeds.
In modern history (in the 1970s), much of pita's popularity in the West is due to this pocket. Instead of using pita to scoop foods, the pocket is filled with various sandwich fixings. These are sometimes called "pita pockets" or "pocket pitas". Certain manufacturers have taken steps in packaging to clarify the difference between pita (which has no pocket, and historically meant flat) and pita pita (wuk nuk) pockets (which have pockets).
For instance, Kangaroo Brands, Inc., a Milwaukee-based US pita manufacturer, has renamed all products on their package to correctly identify which breads contain pockets and which are flat. Certain innovations have also helped educate consumers. In 1987, Kangaroo was the first company world-wide to pre-slice pita pockets in equal halves, so that consumers could easily separate the layers. Further innovations led to the pre-opened pockets, a Kangaroo-patented process that keeps the pockets open, much like taco shells.
In the United States, the term "pita" is also used to encompass burrito or sandwich like wraps, which can contain any number of ingredients (often chicken, gyro meat, assorted vegetables, tzatziki sauce, and tabouli). The use of this term owes partially to the "Pita's" chain of restaurants, now known as "Republic of Pita". These pita sandwiches are often marketed as a healthier alternative to conventional fast food.
In some circles, "pita" is interchangeable with naan, as they serve similar functions and are similar in appearance.