Greece was the last place we were able to visit before the worldwide pandemic struck. The Parthenon, Delphi, and all the rest fulfilled that bucket-list desire to see the origins of western civilization. And we really enjoyed the food—everything from simple salads with slabs of feta to roasted whole fish. We had never really tried cooking Greek dishes at home, but as long as we’re in a travel holding pattern, there’s no time like the present to remedy that. We’re focusing on some of the staples we enjoyed on our sojourn in Athens last winter. That begins with the simplest of breads.

Pita isn’t a quick bread, but it takes very little time to make

Except for the fresh strawberries with super-thick yogurt we ate for breakfast every morning in our Athens Airbnb, we can’t remember a meal that didn’t feature pita bread. Sometimes it was splashed with sumac as an appetizer, sometimes it was a humble carrier for great dips and mezze, and sometimes (like at the top of the post) it served as a platform for kebabs. It was always worlds better than the supermarket pita bread we buy at home. So why not make it?

We sought out recipes for pita and found that they were all quite similar. The one below is our own adaptation. It makes three rounds of seven and one-half to eight inches—just right for two people making a meal of pita with lots of dips and mezze.

Start two hours before you’re planning to eat. Too long a rise makes tough bread, and too short a rise tastes blah. You’ll want a fairly moist dough to ensure a good puff while cooking, so roll out on a pastry cloth. Otherwise you might add too much extra flour and end up with dry loaves.

You can cook pita in the oven or on a stovetop griddle. We tried both techniques and found our oven-baked pita was more cracker than bread. Since the oven technique requires heating the griddle (or a heavy baking sheet) in the oven anyway, it didn’t save any dishes. Besides, we like the control of being able to press down the edges to get an even puff across the loaf. Aided by the sponge technique, the recipe below produces a dough that will double in size in just an hour on the counter.

BASIC PITA BREAD

1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105–110°F)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil plus 1/2 teaspoon for greasing the bowl

Start by making a sponge. Add sugar and yeast to 1/2 cup warm water and stir to dissolve. Whisk in 1/4 cup flour. Leave bowl in warm place. It should start bubbling in about 15 minutes.

Add salt and olive oil to the sponge. Then fold in 3/4 cup flour, reserving the remainder for forming the loaves. It will be a shaggy mess. That’s good. Dust lightly with some flour and turn out onto pastry cloth for kneading. Work the dough by hand, turning a quarter turn, folding over and pressing down. Keep it up until the texture is like a fleshy earlobe (about 5 minutes).

Meantime, scrape the bowl clean and lightly grease with 1/2 teaspoon oil. Place dough back in bowl and turn to grease all sides. Cover bowl with a clean towel and let dough rise until doubled, about an hour.

Turn dough back onto pastry cloth and divide in thirds. We’re pretty exacting when baking, so we weigh the whole mass and divide into balls that weigh one-third. Each third is around 120 grams (a little over 4 ounces).

Wipe the griddle with an oily piece of paper towel and set over medium-high burner to heat while you’re rolling out the loaves.

Roll each ball into a circle about 8 inches (20 cm) round or a little less.

Cooking the pita

You could stop at this point and refrigerate the rolled out dough to cook later, but we usually forge ahead because we’re hungry by now.

The griddle should be hot enough that drops of water sizzle and quickly evaporate. Using a large spatula, place a round on the griddle and let it cook about 30 seconds. (It may start bubbling up. That’s good.) Quickly flip and cook other side for 1-2 minutes. You can press the edges with a spatula to ensure the interior air pocket spreads across the loaf. Wrap in clean towel to hold for eating. Repeat with other two rounds.