Ftira

Medium·35 min active + 1 hour 55 min resting

Malta's ring-shaped sourdough bread, dressed Gozitan-style — split and piled with tomato paste (kunserva), tuna, capers, olives, onion, and olive oil. The UNESCO-listed Maltese bread as the islands' everyday sandwich (ħobż biż-żejt).

Ftira, the flattish ring-shaped Maltese sourdough, was inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage in 2020. Filled with kunserva, tuna, capers, and olives it becomes ħobż biż-żejt, 'bread with oil', the national snack.

Bite into a dressed ftira and the crust crackles before the chewy, open sourdough crumb soaked at the cut face with sweet kunserva and grassy olive oil. Bite: the tomato paste is concentrated and sweet-savory, the tuna rich, the capers and olives sharp and briny, the raw onion crunchy. Rustic and generous, dripping a little oil — the taste of a Maltese summer lunch by the sea.

The sourdough's open, chewy crumb and sturdy crust stand up to a wet dressing without going soggy. Smearing concentrated tomato paste (rather than fresh tomato alone) packs sweet-savory umami into the bread; the oil carries flavor and softens the crumb at the cut face while capers and olives add briny contrast.

Variations

Gozo-style ftira baked with potato and topping on top. With anchovy instead of tuna. With ġbejna (Maltese cheeselet). With broad-bean paste (bigilla). Pure ħobż biż-żejt (oil and kunserva only). With hard-boiled egg.

On the Palate

Where Ftira sits in the Maltese flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Bake the sourdough ring to a genuinely crusty, hollow-sounding loaf with an open chewy crumb — that sturdy structure is what lets it hold a wet oily dressing without turning to mush.

Techniques

Baking Fermentation

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

8 steps · 35 min active + 1 hour 55 min waiting

1
12 min
Mix 500 g flour, 320 ml water, 100 g active sourdough, and 1.5 tsp salt into a dough; knead.
2
95 min
Rise 90 min until doubled; shape into a flat ring with a hole in the center.
Watch out
The dough is ready to shape once it's risen to double and springs back slowly to a light press.
3
30 min
Prove 30 min, then bake at 230°C for 25 min until crusty and hollow-sounding.
Watch out
Tap the base — a hollow drum sound means it's baked through and the crust is set.
4
4 min
Cool, then split a wedge horizontally.
5
3 min
Spread both cut sides generously with tomato paste (kunserva).
6
5 min
Pile on flaked tuna, capers, sliced olives, thin onion, and a little fresh tomato.
7
2 min
Drizzle generously with olive oil and crack over pepper.
Watch out
Drizzle until the cut crumb glistens and just starts to drink in the oil, not so much it pools.
8
2 min
Close and press lightly; serve as the everyday ħobż biż-żejt.