Kashar Cheese Pide

Kaşarlı pide is the Turkish oven flatbread in its plainest form: an oval of yeasted dough, its edges folded up into a boat, filled with grated kaşar cheese and baked in a stone oven until the cheese bubbles. Kaşar is a semi-hard yellow cheese made from cow's or sheep's milk, milder and more elastic than an aged cheddar. The Kars region in eastern Türkiye is known for the aged version, while pide shops usually use young (taze) kaşar because it melts evenly. Pide traditions are strongest along the Black Sea coast, in Samsun, Trabzon and Rize, and in Konya, but kaşarlı pide is on the board of almost every kebab and pide house in the country. The other variants are built on it: add diced meat and you have kuşbaşılı kaşarlı, add mushrooms and you have mantarlı kaşarlı, swap the kaşar for crumbly white cheese and it becomes peynirli pide.