Turkish Food Specialities
Turkish Pizza
Not from Pizza Hut!

LPT: Perihan's the Chef of our family and will know the details -- but she's away visiting family in Ankara at the moment. In the meantime...

There are 2 Turkish food items that carry the name Pide in Turkey. The first is a special bread that is mostly available at Bayram times. It's shaped sort of like a large pizza -- biggish and round and flattish (though not completely flat), crisp on the outside -- and soft on the inside. Delicious, but I don't think this is the food item you're referring to, because one usually tears it apart and eats it plain -- as 'westerners' might eat a roll or a muffin, etc...

I think you mean the second food item, also called Turkish Pide. And that's really a generic term for it -- because this second kind of Turkish Pide is not specific to the sausage, egg and cheese ingredients you mention. In other words you can make this kind of Turkish Pide with anything you can think of. I like simple melted Kaşar cheese and onion, for example.

The defining thing about this kind of Turkish Pide is the dough wrapping. And I guess that it's this dough recipe that you'd like to have.

If you'll confirm what I've guessed about above, I'll ask Peri to provide the recipe and preparation steps, as soon as she returns.

A&B: The one that I ate was like a wrapped up pizza, cut into strips with the filling on the inside... consisting of sausage and a sort of whipped like egg and cheese.

LPT: Yes, the one you describe is the second type of Turkish Pide. There are restaurants here that only serve various varieties of Pide, made to your order -- much like a Pizza Parlour. In fact my Turkish friends sometimes speak of this food item as 'Turkish Pizza'.

So...you'd like the recipe for the dough, is that right? Remembering, that the inside filling may be whatever strikes your fancy. Or, would you also like some 'standard ingredients' suggestions?

A&B: I would love the recipe for the dough and any sort of hints for the ingredients. I know that you can buy the Turkish sausage but I need to know if I need to cook it first, etc. Also with the egg, do I just beat it -- and what kind of cheese to use.

LPT: Remembering that I'm not the Chef in the family...In reply to your questions about the sausage, egg, and cheese... Firstly, the sausage... don't cook it beforehand. It should be cooked as the Pide bakes. As for the egg, you might add a drop of milk or cream, whichever is handy -- then whip, but not too much. As for the cheese, Turkish White Cheese is most authentic of course -- but any Feta-like cheese will do fine.

Turkish Pide of the Second Kind
Left click directly on a picture below to view its recipe page in Turkish.
Download English translations
in MS Word RTF file.

Thanks to Sana -- Hamur İşleri Kitabı146 for the yummy recipe...