my great grand mother was born and raised in Pontus, the ancient Greek colony in Black Sea, a region tied to epical narratives with Jason, Hercules, Odyssey, inhabited by highly competent merchants and overal hospitable people, Pontic Greeks. I never called her grandma; everybody called her ‘Mana’ – Mother. She was mother to everyone and source of unique Pontic recipes like pisia..

  the recipe

ingredients

• 350gr. flour
• 240ml. lukewarm water
• 4gr. yeast
• pinch of salt and sugar
• 100gr. Feta cheese
• 7tsp. olive oil (for the filling)
• 80ml olive oil (for frying)

directions

• In a big bowl, dilute well the yeast into the lukewarm water with your hands and add a pinch of sugar.
• Add little by little the flour mixing at the same time with your hand. After adding half of the flour drop in a pinch of salt and continue kneading until the flour is over. The dough should be soft and not stick into your fingers. Trust your senses and add more/less flour if needed.
• Let the dough rest for 30′ in a warm place.
• Break the Feta cheese into small pieces in a bowl and add the 7tsp. olive oil.
• When the dough is ready, separate it in 7-8 small balls (each ball should be size of a tennis ball!)

• Add the 80ml. of olive oil in a deep pan and warm it up in a medium high level.
• While waiting for the oil to warm up, ‘open’ one by one the dough balls into circle surfaces (as if you were about to make pizza). They should be 5mm thick.
• Add some of the Feta mixture on the half part of the dough and fold the other half so as that Feta mixture is fully covered. Push with your fingers the endges of the dough in order to keep the Feta well closed inside. As an end result you should have a half circled dough full of Feta!
• Fry 3′-4′ from each side till you get a nice brown color and..

Enjoy!

Tip!

Pisia could be your breakfast with a nice orange juice, a quick snack at work with some yogurt, an Mediterrenean dinner with a beautiful Greek salad!