Many Ways to Enjoy Pita Bread
Pita bread is best eaten soon after baking, within 2-3 hours. You can wrap room temperature pita with plastic wrap and foil and refrigerate for a week or freeze for two months. Let frozen pita defrost slowly in a refrigerator overnight, then reheat or use for appetizers, salads, and quick meals.
1. Make a pita pizza or pie. Use pita as a crust — arrange your favorite toppings and bake in a preheated 400-450F oven.
2. Stuff and serve with yogurt sauce. Mix chopped cooked poultry or meat, grated cheese, grilled vegetables, fresh herbs, spices, and sauce to stuff pita. Eat it at room temperature, or make it hot to let the cheese melt and bind the ingredients. Reheat using a panini grill, hot skillet, or microwave.
3. Toss toasted pita pieces with greens and vegetables to make fattoush. Fattoush is a delicious Mediterranean salad, and there are many variations.
4. Bake or grill homemade pita chips. Preheat oven to 325F, cut the bread into slices, lay the chips on a sheet pan lined with a rack, and spread them evenly without overlapping. Bake for 8-12 min or until both sides are golden brown. Flip them if needed. Panini grill is faster and makes beautiful grill marks. Besides various vegetable dips and spreads, my favorite way of serving pita chips is with pesto, fresh tomatoes, and a slice of burrata.
5. Stuff pita with your favorite burger and grill. A thin layer of ground beef or lamb will cook inside the pita, letting the bread absorb the fat and meat juices.
6. Use pita as a base for oven-baked shakshouka. It’s a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, spiced with harissa. Replace tortilla with pita bread for the Mexican version of this dish — huevos ahogados or “drowned eggs” — eggs poached with salsa.
7. Grill until warm. Brush pita bread with olive oil and grill until it gets toasted and crispy around the edges. Serve with BBQ meat and poultry.
