Laffa
Also: Iraqi pita, Tabun bread, Lafa
A large, thin, soft and chewy Iraqi-Jewish leavened flatbread baked on the hot wall of a tabun or on a saj, used to wrap fillings or scoop dips.
Identity criteria
- 1Large-diameter, thin round of leavened wheat dough
- 2Baked against a hot tabun wall or over a domed saj
- 3Soft and pliable rather than crisp, so it can be rolled or wrapped
- 4Single solid layer with no internal pocket (unlike pocket pita)
- 5Iraqi-Jewish bread, central to Israeli shawarma and falafel wraps
Components
Technique
- Tabun/saj baking
- Intense radiant heat from the clay wall or domed plate cooks the thin bread fast, keeping it soft and pliable
- Thin hand-stretching
- A wide, thin sheet is what makes it wrap large fillings without tearing
Form & serving
- Served
- Flat round, often wrapped around a filling or torn for scooping
- Temperature
- warm
- Portion
- One large round per person or shared
- Pairs with
- Shawarma · Falafel · Hummus · Amba and salads
Character
Flavour
Texture
Soft, chewy, pliable with light char blisters
Eaten
An everyday bread and the standard wrapper for Israeli street-food shawarma and falafel, also torn to scoop dips.
When
all-year
Variations & related
Regional variations
- Tabun laffa · Israel / Iraqi-Jewish kitchens
Baked on the clay tabun wall, slightly blistered
- Saj laffa · Levant
Cooked thinner over a convex metal griddle
Related dishes
- sibling Pita
Related Levantine flatbread but pocketed and smaller
- pairs-with Shawarma
The classic laffa wrap filling
Substitutions
Tabun oven → Hot cast-iron skillet or pizza stoneadmissible
Approximates the bake at home
Leavened laffa → Pocket pitainadmissible
A pocket pita is a different bread and cannot wrap the same way
Common mistakes
- Rolling it too thick so it becomes bready and cannot wrap
- Overbaking until crisp, losing the pliability that defines it
- Confusing it with pocket pita
Provenance
An Iraqi-Jewish flatbread brought to Israel by Mizrahi immigrants, now a staple wrapper for shawarma and falafel in Israeli street food.
References
- 1.Israeli and Iraqi-Jewish culinary references
Confidence: high