Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Alevropita





This is a take on a village-style Greek pizza. The name Alevropita actually translates to flour pie.  I remember eating this as a small child at a dear friends house who happened to be Greek, and her family was from the same village as my family.  It's definitely something I did not invent, but remember eating fondly.  

My mother grew up during WWII in a typical Greek Village in Epirus.  She shared stories of hardship and starvation during the war.  She often shares recipes with me that she remembers during this time.  Greeks definitely lived off the land.  My mother has a real knack for finding edible weeds and making a feast out of nothing.  I'm sure in Greece when food was scarce in the old days, and all you had to eat if you were lucky was feta, flour, eggs and olive oil this was probably served as dinner.  

Alevropita
SERVES 8-10

Ingredients
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 
1 1/3 cup water
1 egg
1 1/ 2 cups  all purpose flour
Pinch salt
1/2  tsp. baking powder

3 Tablespoons olive oil for brushing on pan
12 oz. feta, crumbled
2 tbsp. unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
 A little extra Olive Oil to Drizzle on to top of pizza

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a half size rimmed sheet pan or a round 16 inch pizza pan with rim into hot oven for 10 minutes.

2.  In a bowl, whisk together 3 Tablespoons olive oil, egg, and 1 1/3 cup water in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Pour wet mixture over dry mixture and whisk until smooth, similar to pancake batter. 

3. Brush remaining oil over bottom of hot pan and pour batter, smoothing batter with an offset  spatula to coat the bottom evenly.  Add cheese uniformly over batter, and dot with butter cubes. Sprinkle dried oregano and drizzle a little olive oil on top.   Bake, for approximately 20 minutes until crispy.  I turned my pan once to rotate during baking.  This helps to bake evenly.   Cool slightly before cutting with pizza cutter.  Serve as appetizer or even a main course with a Greek salad.

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