Sitos — the staple flatbread of the meal (deipnon)
Maza with mint and fresh cheese
EverydayDocumented☕ 🧂facile35 min
The unleavened barley flatbread, the basis of ordinary Greek diet, here flavored with fresh mint and spread with goat cheese. Rustic, slightly bitter from the barley, bright with mint — the everyday incarnate.
Sitos — the staple flatbread of the meal (deipnon)
The unleavened barley flatbread, the basis of ordinary Greek diet, here flavored with fresh mint and spread with goat cheese. Rustic, slightly bitter from the barley, bright with mint — the everyday incarnate.
They call me dark, they believe me without tenderness — but I have loved. Minthe, my nymph, was crushed by my wife's wrath; I could only give her this scent that rises under the foot that tramples her. So, on my table, I want my barley flatbread rubbed with her leaves. Knead the toasted flour, roll it thin, eat it with a little goat cheese: you will taste the bitterness of barley and the freshness of her whom I could not keep.
Ingredients
- •Toasted barley flour (alphita) — one measure (staple grain)
- •Water — as needed (binder)
- •Olive oil — a drizzle (pliability)
- •Fresh mint — a few leaves (signature aroma)
- •Fresh goat cheese — as desired (opson (accompaniment))
- •Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
How it was made : The *maza* — flatbread or porridge of toasted then ground barley (*alphita*) — was the staple food of the ordinary Greek, far more common than leavened wheat bread (*artos*). Often eaten uncooked or barely cooked, simply kneaded. Mint (*hêdyosmon*) and fresh goat cheeses were among the most common *opsa*.
Sources : Strabo & Ovid, Metamorphoses (myth of Minthe) · Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (2003), entries 'barley' and 'maza' · James Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes (Greek diet, sitos/opson)