A protected thing
In December 2020 UNESCO inscribed Il-Ftira, culinary art and culture of flattened sourdough bread in Malta on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It was the first Maltese entry on that list.
What was recognised is not a recipe but a practice: sourdough, a wood or stone oven, and the bakery as a village institution.
Malta’s ftira and Gozo’s
In Malta, ftira usually means the bread itself: a flattened sourdough ring, split and filled with tuna, tomatoes, capers, olives and ġbejniet. The famous version is a sandwich.
In Gozo, ask for a ftira and you are as likely to get something baked: a flatbread with the topping cooked onto it, closer in shape to a pizza and nothing like one in taste. The standard Gozitan version carries sliced potato, onion, ġbejniet and often anchovy, baked until the potato has gone soft and the edges have caught.
It is heavier than a pizza, saltier, and properly a meal.
Where to get it
Village bakeries rather than restaurants, and ideally one still using a stone oven. Nadur and Xagħra both have bakeries with a reputation for it. The thing to ask is whether they bake it to order, because the difference between a ftira straight from the oven and one that has sat on a counter is the whole point.
Bakeries run early. A ftira is a morning or lunchtime thing, and by late afternoon in a village you will be too late.
Elsewhere on the island
- Practical Getting to Gozo, and getting around once you are there The car ferry, the fast ferry from Valletta, the buses that all go through Victoria, and whether you actually need a car. Including the fare quirk that catches everyone once.
- Countryside The Gozo countryside: terraces, walls and valley walks A plateau cut by valleys, held up by dry stone walls somebody still maintains. Where to walk, when not to, and what you are actually looking at.
- Crafts & artists Crafts and makers on Gozo Lace, filigree, blown glass and pottery, the crafts village at Ta’ Dbieġi, and how to tell what was made on the island from what was flown in to be sold here.