Lamb Gozleme with Spinach and Fetta

Justine Schofield's Turkish gozleme stuffed with spiced lamb mince, baby spinach and Greek-style fetta, pan-cooked until the wrap blisters and the cheese melts inside. Cumin, paprika and a hit of garlic do the talking. Market-stall food, made at home on a hot pan.

Gozleme is the Turkish street-market flatbread that has spread across the broader Mediterranean and Australian-Turkish diaspora through the network of Turkish-Australian community food festivals. The defining structural feature is the thin, large flatbread (around 30cm across) folded around a savoury filling and cooked flat on a hot griddle until the bread blisters and the filling melts. The bread itself is unleavened and stretches almost to translucency.

The lamb-mince filling is the structural ingredient that pulls this version into the traditional Turkish register (rather than the lighter spinach-and-cheese-only variations also common). Lamb mince mixed with finely diced red onion, garlic, cumin, paprika and a beaten egg (to bind the mixture into something that doesn't fall out of the gozleme), cooked through in a pan before being spooned onto the rolled-out bread.

The greek-style fetta (rather than the more crumbly Bulgarian or Cypriot varieties) is the right cheese here. The Greek version is creamier, milkier and softer, melting into the filling rather than staying in distinct lumps; the combination of the salty cheese with the spiced lamb is the Turkish-Greek crossover that defines this version. Wilted baby spinach folded through, the whole filling spooned onto half the bread, folded over and pan-cooked. Brush with butter while cooking; cut into wedges; serve with lemon wedges. A glass of cold Assyrtiko or a Turkish raki.