Every so often, you come across a dish that hits it out of the park.

A dish that delivers far more than the brief.

A dish that makes you think wow.

No surprises, this is one of those dishes.

It is enormous. It is spectacular. And it gets better with practise, something you’ll love doing – over a few Saturday evening wines – knowing that each crust will get crisper, the lamb spicier, the bottle of red emptier.

The dough is easy so please don’t get put off by that: simply knead by hand and set aside and you’re home on that front. Double the lamb like we did and make it a meal.

The rather simple recipe is from the Turkish cookbook Anatolia.

The guys behind the book – and the dish – are from Efendy, an excellent Turkish restaurant in Balmain and one I highly recommend.

In the meantime, have a few wines next Saturday afternoon, cut-sort your plans for sushi or a salad and do it right.

This is 10/10 territory.

Lordy.

(We served the salad sprinkled on each cooked pide and would suggest you do too! Also, we have slightly adjusted the recipe, though only slightly.)

Ingredients

1 ⅓ cups flour
½ cup wholemeal flour to dust

Topping
2 tomatoes
1 red capsicum
75gm capsicum paste (salca)*
5 garlic cloves, chopped
½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped
2 tsp chilli flakes
200gm lamb mince (we used 500gm though as a starter, do 200gm)
Salt and freshly cracked pepper

*You might be able to find this at a supermarket, definitely at a deli but if not use roasted peppers in a jar

Red onion and Sumac Salad
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp sumac
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 300c or as hot as she goes.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the salt. Make a well in the center and slowly add ½ cup lukewarm water. Using your hands, mix to a firm dough adding a little extra water if necessary. Knead the dough for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
3. Sprinkle some flour on a board, turn out the dough and divide into 4-even sized balls. Cover with a damp cloth to rest for 30-minutes.
4. Meanwhile, score a shallow cross in the base of the tomatoes and cover in a bowl with boiling water. Leave until the skin starts the peel and remove and refresh. Slice, deseed and chop.
5. Deseed the capsicum and chop.
6. Place the tomato and capsicum in a food processor with the capsicum paste, garlic, parsley, chili flakes, 1 tsp cracked black pepper, 1 tsp salt and pulse to a coarse paste. Add to the lamb mince in a bowl and stir well to combine.
7. In a fine sieve or similar, push out all the liquid in the lamb mixture. You want to remove as much liquid as possible.
8. Dust 4 sheets of baking paper with wholemeal flour. Place a ball of dough on the floured work surface and roll out until 25cm round and thin. Place on a floured baking paper. Thinly spread the lamb mixture over the base, pressing in with your hands.
9. Place the baking paper/round on a baking tray and cook for 10 – 12 minutes until the edges are crisp.
10. Meanwhile, make the salad by combining the ingredients.
11. Serve the pide with the salad sprinkled on top.
12. Repeat with the 3 other pide.