Pide... That's amore...

Pide, Turkish flat bread baked with some cheese, vegetable or ground meat topping, is to me what pizza is to a Neopolitan. In Konya, my hometown, where love and friendship are king and queen, when friends and loved ones meet, here is what they say: When the moon hits your eye like a thin long pide, that's amore...

My home town makes fame out of pide. There is a pide shop every block --like Starbucks--, and every small village has its own pide shop. Every single pide shop prepares its dough fresh from scratch daily, bakes hand made pide to the order in wood-fired stone ovens. We don't only eat pide in Konya, we talk pide, we swear by pide. We offer pide to express our love and friendship... Finding the best pide in town is a constant quest for truth. Yet we prefer any pide baked in Konya to any pide baked elsewhere. To be frank, we don't like others' pides; we don't even like the pides baked out of Konya by pide chefs from Konya, it never tastes the same... Pide is very close to my heart. No, it is my heart. And I want to bake it perfectly in the US with the ingredients found in the US... Now that is an impossible task, but dream-able, because that's amore...

My pide is still a work in progress. I will give you my recipe today, which I think works better than many recipes that you will find elsewhere, especially the dough recipes that you will find at Google with olive oil, yogurt, egg, all good stuff having nothing to do with an authentic pide dough. But please come back later, as I am sure I will twist it here and there.

The recipe has three parts, the dough, the topping and tips for getting the crust right in a nonprofessional kitchen oven.

Here are the ingredients for four generously sized pide:

2 cups bread flour - 12 oz

1 ts dry active yeast

1 ts kosher salt

1 and 1/8 tap water at about room temperature, OK to be on the colder side, but don't use warmed water; an additional 1/16 to 1/8 cup as needed

To make life easier, pick a big metal roasting pan, much easier to work with dough on a metal surface. Sift flour on the pan, open a well in the middle, add salt and yeast, add 1/2 cup of water, mix with your fingers, once the yeast dissolves add the remaining water, start adding the flour from the wall of the well. Once the water and flour is mixed well, knead about 5-10 minutes until smooth. It will be sticky in the beginning but will develop into a more consistent and less sticky dough in a few minutes; don't panic and don't add extra flour. Make a big ball of the dough, lightly oil to avoid drying out. Rest in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Let it rest for 2 hours.

Many recipes suggest much more yeast, warm water, sugar and about 30 minute rise time. This is too quick by all means. It is the slow rise that gives the taste and texture to the pide crust.

Once the dough rises, divide it into 4 to 6 equal pieces, make a ball using your hand on a lightly floured surface. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and cover with oiled plastic wrap, let it rest about 20 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven to the maximum heat available, no broil, just bake. The professional ovens reach a much higher heat, we will do with whatever we have.

Prepare your topping. I tried two different toppings with different cheese combination. We have our own local blue cheese in Konya, which makes an excellent pide topping. To capture that taste, I mixed grated caciocavallo (known as kaskaval in Turkey) with a little gorgonzola. I also tried plain grated feta cheese, which is pretty common as pide topping elsewhere in Turkey. Whatever cheese you like, here are the ingredients to be mixed for the topping:

Grated cheese, possibly mixed

Finely chopped parsley, generous amount

Finely diced shallot, rinse and let it drain in a colander, about 1 ts for each pide

Salt and pepper

Once the balls rest, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a long oval shape on a lightly floured surface. The crust will be very thin. The dough should be quite forgiving at that point, hold it, play with it, try to stretch it, shape it, you will get comfortable after a few tries. And if you get better, you will not need a rolling pin at all to roll it out. I am not there yet but slowly and surely approaching.

You need a thick commercial quality baking pan. When it comes to baking pide, thin cookie sheets are useless. A pizza stone is probably better, but it is also quite pricey and tends to break after a few bake.

Place the rolled out dough on to the baking pan. Depending on the size of your pide, you may place two on the pan. Spread the topping on the dough generously and evenly. Fold the sides. Wet your hands with water and tap pressing lightly on top of your pide all the way. Bake your pide on the medium rack for 8 minutes. Depending on the heat of your oven, the baking time may change.

Once the pide is out of oven, put very thin slices of butter, and if your cheese is not salty enough, a touch of salt. Slice and enjoy...

When you walk in a dream with a slice of pide in your hand, but you know you're not dreaming, signore, scuzza' me, but you see, back in old Konya, that's amore...