Recipe & Images KATHY PATERSON
Pita bread is fun to make — you can roll your own dough then pop it on the barbecue hot plate to cook. I pulled this recipe from The Sunday Life magazine in the Melbourne Age many years ago — so long in fact that the paper is very discoloured. I have changed the method to the way I prefer to make yeast breads.
Makes 12 large pita bread
1 tbsp sugar
1½ tsp active dried yeast
375ml warm water
4 cups (500g) plain flour or use bread flour
2 tsp salt
½ heaped cup (100g) fine semolina
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing
Good Bugs fermented pesto for topping
Put the sugar and yeast in a small bowl and pour in about 75ml of the measured warm water. Leave in a warm place until frothy (about 5 minutes).
Sift the flour and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the semolina, oil and remaining water along with the frothy yeast mixture. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. You can also knead by hand if you don’t have a mixer, it’s very therapeutic.
Tip dough out of the bowl then lightly oil the bowl to prevent sticking during rising. Return dough to the bowl and turn over to oil the top surface of the dough.
Cover bowl well with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place until the dough doubles in size (about 1 hour).
Tip dough out onto a floured bench and knead for a further minute. Cut the dough into 12 even-sized pieces. Cover pieces with a tea towel to prevent them from drying out and again keeping everything warm.
Heat a barbecue hot plate or a heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat. Lightly brush with oil to prevent sticking.
Start by rolling a piece of dough into a thin round pita bread shape. Prick pita bread well with a fork then put on the hot plate or in the hot pan. Cook on each side until lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, stacking pita bread on a clean tea towel and putting a small piece of baking paper between each one.
Serve pita bread spread with a little fermented pesto.
Tips – your first pita bread will be the test to see if you have rolled the dough thin enough to give you the traditional pita bread shape.
Store any extra pita breads in the freezer — make sure they are well wrapped.
Green Coleslaw with Fermented Pesto Vinaigrette
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Good Bugs fermented pesto
salt and pepper
Green Coleslaw
8 handfuls of very finely shredded green cabbage
2 handfuls of small green beans, sliced and lightly steamed or leave raw if picked fresh from the garden
2 handfuls of picked soft herb leaves, such as coriander, flat leaf parsley, a few snipped chives, a few mint leaves or sweet marjoram leaves
To make the vinaigrette, put the lemon juice, oil, fermented pesto and salt and pepper in a screw-top jar. Shake well then check seasoning.
To make the coleslaw, put the cabbage, green beans and herb leaves in a serving bowl. Drizzle over enough vinaigrette to moisten and gently toss to combine.
Kathy Paterson is a recipe developer, food stylist and photographer. A plentiful herb garden and a trial and error vegetable garden give Kathy the starting place for her recipes along with her love of the classics with a modern twist.
www.kathypaterson.co.nz