Somun

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Somun is a yeast-raised flatbread that's popular all over the Balkans and similar to pide or pitta. It's usually made with a combination of flour, water, salt, and yeast. Once the dough has been prepared, it's traditionally baked on top of old stoves, but nowadays the flatbread is mostly baked in the oven at high temperatures. If properly prepared, the interior should be slightly hollow and puffy. There are many variations on somun, and some cooks top the flatbread with cumin or sesame seeds, while others add oil to the dough. The flatbread is mostly used as a vessel for ćevapi – small minced meat sausages that have a cult following in the Balkans. Somun is slightly softer than its cousin lepinja, and it's also more aromatic, with a greater melt-in-the-mouth properties.