Pita or pitta, is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, also known as Arabic bread, Syrian bread, and other names, as well as pocketless versions such as the Greek pita, used to wrap souvlaki. The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, such as numerous styles of Arab khubz.
The first mention of the word in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1936. The English word is borrowed from Modern Greek πίτα, in turn from the Byzantine Greek πίτα "bread, cake, pie, pitta" and possibly from the Ancient Greek πίττα or πίσσα "pitch/resin", or Ancient Greek πικτή, "fermented pastry", which may have passed to Latin as "picta" cf. pizza. In Levantine Arabic it evolved into fatteh,. Other hypotheses trace the word back to the Classical Hebrew word patt פת, from which it was received into Byzantine Greek. Hypotheses also exist for Germanic or Illyrian intermediaries. The word has been borrowed by Turkish as pide, and appears in the Balkan languages as Serbo-Croatianpita, Romanianpită, Albanianpite, Bulgarianpitka or pita. Although in the Serbo-Croatian languages of the countries comprising Former Yugoslavia the word pita is used for burek-style pastries. In Arabic, the phrase خبز البيتا is sometimes used; other names are simply خبز 'khubz, bread' or الخبز العربي 'Arab bread' or خبز الكماج 'al-kimaj bread'. In Egypt, it is called ʿaish or ʿaish baladi, meaning rustic, local, or rural bread. "'Aish" also means life in Arabic, highlighting the importance of pita bread in Egyptian culture. In Greek, the Arabic bread is called aravikē pita''.
Preparation
Most pita are baked at high temperatures, which turns the water in the dough into steam, thus causing the pita to puff up and form a pocket. When removed from the oven, the layers of baked dough remain separated inside the deflated pita, which allows the bread to be opened to form a pocket. However, pita is sometimes baked without pockets and is called "pocket-less pita". Regardless of whether it is made at home or in a commercial bakery, pita is proofed for a very short time—only 15 minutes. Modern commercial pita bread is prepared on advanced automatic lines. These lines have high production capacities, processing pound silos of flour at a time and producing thousands of loaves per hour. The ovens used in commercial baking are much hotter than traditional clay ovens——so each loaf is baked only for one minute. The pita are then air-cooled for about 20 minutes on conveyor belts before being shipped immediately or else stored in commercial freezers kept at a temperature of.
Culinary use
Pita can be used to scoop sauces or dips, such as hummus, or to wrap kebabs, gyros, or falafel in the manner of sandwiches. It can also be cut and baked into crispy pita chips. In Turkish cuisine, the word pide may refer to three different styles of bread: a flatbread similar to that eaten in Greece and Arab countries, a pizza-like dish where the filling is placed on the dough before baking, and Ramazan pide. The first type of pide is used to wrap various styles of kebab, while the second is topped with cheese, ground meat, or other fresh or cured meats, and/or vegetables. Regional variations in the shape, baking technique, and toppings create distinctive styles for each region. In Cyprus, pita is typically rounder, fluffier and baked on a cast iron skillet. It is used for souvlakia, sheftalia, halloumi with lountza, and gyros. In Greece the word pita means "pastry" and is usually used for various cakes and pastries like spanakopita and karydopita unrelated to the English language "pita" flatbread. Traditional breads in Greek cuisine are leavened loaves, such as the round καρβέλι karvéli or the oblong φραντζόλα frantzóla. This style of pita flatbread, in the English language meaning of the word, is almost exclusively used as a wrap for souvlaki or gyros usually garnished with some combination of tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onions, and french fries.
