Pitta with Red Chilli Pepper of Calabria and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
I had never tried pitte before having our little bakery. In the South of Calabria you can't find them in bakeries, as they are a specialty prepared only in the home rite.
When the dough has doubled in size and is almost ripe, a small amount is taken and balls of about 150 gr are formed. Let them rise for 10 minutes, then flatten them with the hands, without rolling pin, on a floured surface and let them rest for another 10 minutes. After having heated the oven with olive or chestnut wood bundles, place the discs of dough on the mouth of the oven. If the pitte begin to swell in small air bubbles, sudden and successive so as to make it necessary to pierce, it is a sign that the oven is ready to receive the leavened dough and make it as crispy as bread. In order to try again that ancient flavor, and every time dazzling, in my perpetual wandering away from home, not having a wood-burning oven, I used a lava stone red-hot on a normal stove (perfect the texts from Romagna, used for piadina). It is necessary that the dough rests on the red-hot stone. Wood-burning ovens are no good, as they give a completely different product. It is only the stone that gives a thermal impulse similar to the one produced on the pizza when it enters the oven and that makes it unbalance upwards. By placing the discs on the stone and turning them often, it is possible to obtain a real pitta, light and thin, with a caramelized taste, to be sprinkled with oil with hot peppers or roasted garlic, tomatoes or grilled vegetables.
When the dough has doubled in size and is almost ripe, a small amount is taken and balls of about 150 gr are formed. Let them rise for 10 minutes, then flatten them with the hands, without rolling pin, on a floured surface and let them rest for another 10 minutes. After having heated the oven with olive or chestnut wood bundles, place the discs of dough on the mouth of the oven. If the pitte begin to swell in small air bubbles, sudden and successive so as to make it necessary to pierce, it is a sign that the oven is ready to receive the leavened dough and make it as crispy as bread. In order to try again that ancient flavor, and every time dazzling, in my perpetual wandering away from home, not having a wood-burning oven, I used a lava stone red-hot on a normal stove (perfect the texts from Romagna, used for piadina). It is necessary that the dough rests on the red-hot stone. Wood-burning ovens are no good, as they give a completely different product. It is only the stone that gives a thermal impulse similar to the one produced on the pizza when it enters the oven and that makes it unbalance upwards. By placing the discs on the stone and turning them often, it is possible to obtain a real pitta, light and thin, with a caramelized taste, to be sprinkled with oil with hot peppers or roasted garlic, tomatoes or grilled vegetables.