🇲🇹 Maltese Recipes

Traditional Mediterranean Cuisine

Ftira Għawdxija (Gozitan Potato Flatbread)

Make traditional Gozitan ftira with a crisp, chewy base topped with potato, tomato, olives, capers, and anchovies or tuna. Serves four.

Prep: 30 minutes (plus rising time) Cook: 35 minutes Servings: 4 people
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Watercolour illustration of Gozitan flatbread topped with potatoes, tomatoes, olives and anchovies.

Ingredients

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Measures: 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1 tsp = 5ml. For local ingredient names and substitutions, see our guide to Maltese ingredients abroad.

Instructions

  1. Make the dough: Mix the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm water and olive oil, then knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth. Cover and leave to rise for 1-2 hours, until doubled.
  2. Prepare the topping: Toss the thinly sliced potatoes with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. Keep the tomato, onion, capers, olives, and fish ready.
  3. Shape the ftira: Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan 200°C). Stretch the dough into a large round or oval on a lined baking tray. Spread the kunserva thinly over the surface, leaving a small border.
  4. Top: Arrange the potatoes, tomatoes, onion, capers, olives, and anchovies or tuna over the dough. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
  5. Bake: Bake for 30-35 minutes until the base is crisp, the potatoes are tender, and the edges are golden. Rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Ftira Għawdxija is a rustic Gozitan bread topped with potatoes, tomatoes, onion, olives, capers, and usually anchovies or tuna. It sits somewhere between bread, pizza, and a savoury tart, but its flavour is unmistakably Maltese and Gozitan.

Ingredient Substitutions Outside Malta

For the difference between this bake and bread filled as a sandwich, read the ftira guide.

Use bread flour for the dough and concentrated tomato paste if kunserva is unavailable. Tinned tuna and anchovy fillets are the alternatives already offered in the recipe; choose one and drain it. This is a topped Gozitan flatbread, so a filled sandwich roll sold as ftira is a different starting point.

Serving Suggestions

  • Serve warm from the oven
  • Cut into wedges for sharing
  • Pair with a simple green salad
  • Good for picnics, lunches, and casual dinners

Traditional Notes & Tips

  • Slice the potatoes very thinly so they cook through
  • Some versions are closed like a filled pie, while others are open-faced
  • Anchovies give a stronger, saltier flavour; tuna makes it milder
  • A generous drizzle of olive oil helps the topping bake properly
  • The base should be crisp rather than soft and doughy

Gozitan ftira and the village bakery

Gozitan ftira is part of the island’s village-bakery repertoire. Visit Gozo’s bakery guide describes topped ftajjar with anchovies, cheeselets, and produce. This recipe uses a yeasted dough and a potato-and-fish topping; it represents one home-baked version, not every bakery’s dough or filling.

Do not confuse it with the flattened sourdough bread tradition named in UNESCO’s 2020 ftira decision. That recognition concerns the making, sharing, and culture of the bread, not certification of this particular topped recipe.