pitta

Not quite like 'pizza', but the word gives away a possible origin, or at least a close relationship, with the pita bread of Greece and the Middle East. The word is more common in the south.

'Pitta' is used for an infinity of local specialities and new innovations: some simple flat breads, or wrappers for sandwiches, some practically the same as focaccia, others rolled up with something inside, and others more like pies, such as Calabria's renowned pitta chicculiata, filled with tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, olives and capers; they also make sweet versions, pitta 'mpigliata, filled with honey, walnuts and dried fruits and pitta nchiusa, with almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon and white wine.

Some are very thin and fried. Pitilla, in southern Puglia, is a thick version baked in a wood oven, often with olives or raisins mixed in the dough to give the bread extra flavour. Afterwards it is sometimes stuffed with ricotta, tomatoes, onions or fried peppers. Also called pirilla, 'mpilla, pilla, simeddhra, brocula and frizzulu.