Passion In a Pan : Tomato Flatbread – Lagana Me Domates Ke Votana

Continuing my expedition of the Greek kitchen, I put together another very interesting recipe from Vefa’s Greek encyclopedia – Tomato Flat Bread. I am always very scared of baking bread – I muster courage and cross my fingers hoping all goes well! To ensure good bread you need to ensure you are using good yeast and you give it the right amount of time to rise. This bread is a little dense but full of flavours. I call it a mini Greek pizza! The recipe seems long and time consuming, but the results are worth the wait!

This recipe is a modified version of the one in the book replacing some ingredients based on availability and taste.

Ingredients

Dough

2½ cups all-purpose flour (Maida)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp mixed herbs – oregano, chilli flakes, rosemary, thyme and roasted garlic
1 tsp honey
1 tsp sugar
5 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp active dried yeast (I prefer to use Tesco Dried Yeast)
½ cup luke warm water

Topping

8 garlic cloves crushed
2 table spoon finely chopped olives
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 cup finely chopped tomatoes
1 tsp whole grain mustard
½ tsp pepper powder
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp red chilli flakes
Salt to taste

Method

The Dough

· In a deep plate put together the first four ingredients of the dough

· In bowl, take the luke warm water and mix the yeast, add a 1 tsp sugar and mix well. If the yeast is good, you will start seeing it activate (bubbles start to appear in the mixture)

· Add the olive and yeast mixture to the other ingredients

· Sift the ingredients together and make a soft elastic dough

· Make a ball of the dough and let it rest in a warm place till it doubles in size. This would take about 30-45 minutes (this is called proving)

The Topping

· Whilst the dough is proving we can prepare the topping.

· In a pan heat olive oil and add the chopped tomatoes. Continue stirring occasionally till the tomatoes are cooked (have softened).

· Add the all other topping ingredients and continue stirring over medium heat. Continue stirring till the liquid evaporates and you are left with a thick pasty mixture. This would take about 5 minutes.

· Let it cool

Putting it all together

· Preheat oven at 200F

· Now take the dish in which would bake the bread. On the kitchen counter, spread a little dry flour, and flatten the dough in a round/ square shape (with your hand) ¾ of an inch thick (depending on the shape of your baking dish)

· Transfer this to your baking dish. Ensure that the dough is about ½ cm away from the sides, this allows the space for the bread to expand during the baking process.

· On this roughly spread the tomato paste leaving about ½ inch off the sides. Similar to the way you would spread pizza sauce on a pizza base

· Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes till you can see the bread starting to brown from the sides.

Sprinkle some dried herbs and olive oil before serving