Batzina is a doughy pita with zucchini which is traditional to the region of Thessaly and particularly the town of Karditsa. It is a pita without filo: a salty “bare” pumpkin pita with a very fine dough baked in the oven, making it remarkably crispy. The traditional batzina is thin, just a few centimetres thick for two reasons: first to enable rapid cooking, and second to remain crispy for hours, and even days.
The ease of preparation makes batzina ideal for all occasions. It is the meal that the farmers took with them to the fields wrapped in a towel or that parents gave to their children to take to school, and it is also excellent for breakfast. A pita that embodies Greek tradition and the lifestyle of the olden days, it was typically cooked in a wood-burning oven.
Its ingredients are as simple as its origin: green zucchini, hard feta cheese, eggs, milk, olive oil, all-purpose flour, butter and salt.
Initially, batzina did not contain zucchini, and was named after the cheese batzos, used in the recipe. In Thessaly they added large and green-yellowish zucchinis to the batzina. Vying to make the best batzina, no house in the region’s villages is without these zucchinis!
