Tiropita


Tiropita or tyropita is a Greek pastry made with layers of buttered phyllo and filled with a cheese-egg mixture. It is served either in an individual-size free-form wrapped shape, or as a larger pie that is portioned.

History

The modern Greek tyropita is historically derived from the tyropatinum, which was a sweet custard developed by the ancient Greeks of Sicily consisting of eggs, ricotta cheese, and honey.
Other scholars suggest that the ancient Greek placenta cake and its Eastern Roman descendant, plakountas tetyromenous and en tyritas plakountas, are the ancestors of modern tiropita. Cato the Elder included a recipe for placenta in his De Agri Cultura :
Another theory is that layered dishes like tyropita have their origins in Turkish cuisine and may trace back to layered pan-fried breads developed by the Turks of Central Asia before their westward migration to Anatolia in the late Middle Ages.

Citations