Pita

“Pita” is a staple of any Balkan home and is a broad term for the Balkan family “leaf pastry” layered or rolled with any number of savoury or sweet fillings, or sometimes simply layered without any filling. It can be made by rolling, stretching, stacking or “petalling” the pastry (katmer). It is not the same as the Middle Eastern “pita bread”. At the risk of oversimplifying what is a very complicated family of pastry here is my attempt at summarising what I know so far of the Balkan pita landscape.

Pita can be made with hand rolled paper thin pastry (almost like filo pastry, but not quite the same), which is then either rolled around a filling (a sort of pastry tube) and then swirled around itself (in circles or ovals), or is layered.

This paper thin pastry is not quite the same as “filo” pastry (or “phyllo” or “yulfka” dough) which originates from the Ottoman Empire, though filo pastry can also be used to make “pita”.

Depending on the type of filling, “pita” can be called any number of things. For example, if the filling is spinach based and layered, it is called “zelnik” (in North Macedonia) or “zeljanica” (in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) or, of course, “spanakopita” (in Greece and Cyprus) – the name an adaptation/derivation of the word for whatever filling you are using.

Another wonderful example of this is “tikvanik” which is a sweet pita filled with pumpkin (and walnuts and cinnamon), which is called that because “tikva” is the word for pumpkin.

Then you also have pita without any filling which is called “maslenica” and is simply pastry layered with only “maslo” (lard, or butter or margarine).

Traditionally, only pastry filled with sauteed meat and onion is called “burek” or “borek” in the Balkans, through these days you can have it filled with anything and it is still called burek. Burek tends to be made with a little more oil overall than pita. Though once again, you can also have “pita” with a meat filling in which case it is simply called “meat pita”.

Then there is “banitsa” which is again either rolled or layered filo pastry, usually with an egg and cheese filling (with yoghurt added sometimes).

This North Macedonian version of “pita” using my mother’s recipe is a stacked version of pita and is easier to prepare than the rolled or stretched versions. The dough is very forgiving and the technique is a very clever way of creating what is essentially self-laminating pastry without the stress of rolling or stretching out kori (dough sheets) paper thin. The layering is created by dividing the dough into six to eight small dough balls, rolling each out into small circles, covering each with butter or oil, stacking them, then rolling them out together into one dough sheet which can then be used to layer or roll with filling. When baked, the heat separates the stacked layers, puffing up the dough and creating a laminated flaky texture.

Pita fillings can really be anything. Savoury fillings include spinach and white cheese (sometimes with egg), just cheese, or any combination of onion, leek, sauerkraut, rice, any vegetable, meat. Sweet fillings will be any seasonal fruit: cherries, apples, pumpkin, walnuts and cinnamon.

A leek and sauerkraut filling (sometimes with rice added) is a very typical filling for pita prepared for Christmas Eve (celebrated on 6 January) because this is the last day of the Nativity fast and therefore all food eaten on this day must be egg, dairy and meat free. I absolutely love this filling and happily eat it the rest of the year also.

I made this particular leek and sauerkraut pita to mark Orthodox Old New Year on 13 January. Old New Year is celebrated across the Balkans (and of course many other parts of the world including Russia) who still adhere to the Julian calendar for holidays. My father’s family is from a minority in North Macedonia known as “Vlach” or “Cincari” – one legend is the name is a derivative of Cinci Armi or the Fifth Roman Legion stationed in Macedonia, Moesia and Dacia, an interesting theory as the language is very similar to Latin. In addition to Old New Year, the Vlachs (and others across the region) celebrate “Vasilica” or St. Basil’s Day. Those celebrating Vasilica also have a tradition of preparing pita for this day (sometimes also called “maznik”) and hiding a coin in the pita/maznik (usually a coin is hidden in the Christmas Eve (Badnik) bread). Again, similar to the Badnik bread coin tradition, good fortune awaits the pita coin finder for the year ahead.

I’ve spent a lifetime watching my mother make pita, eagerly waiting while the delicious smells emanating from the oven taunted me, impatiently poking it with a finger once out of the oven to check whether it was cool enough to eat, eating most of it freshly out of the oven with yoghurt and copious amounts of white cheese, Balkan preserves and salads. This is my absolute definition of comfort baking and I hope you try it and enjoy it!