Closed Spinach Pide

Ispanaklı kapalı pide is a closed Turkish pide filled with spinach, the dough folded over and sealed so it bakes into a long loaf that is cut into slices. It belongs to the same family as the spinach fillings of Turkish home baking, ıspanaklı börek and ıspanaklı gözleme, and the filling is close to theirs: chopped spinach with onion, often a crumbly white cheese (beyaz peynir) or kaşar, sometimes an egg to bind it, seasoned with black pepper and pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes). On kebab and pide boards it is usually the vegetarian closed pide, the counterpart to the minced-meat and kavurma versions. The closed format suits spinach for the same reason it suits cooked meat: the filling stays moist inside the dough instead of drying and scorching on the surface, which is what happens to greens left exposed in a 300°C oven.