Sign up with email

or

Already a member? Log in.

Trouble logging in?

Not a member? Sign up!

I fell in love with the island of Kimolos the first time I set foot on it about 15 years ago, while sailing in the area. It’s small enough to get around on your own two feet and has an enchanting simplicity – I could easily picture myself retiring on the island, in a small whitewashed house with a wood-burning oven in the yard, raising a couple of goats and growing tomatoes and grapes.

Part of the Cyclades, Kimolos sits right next to the larger island of Milos and small uninhabited islands like Polyegos, Agios Efstratios and Prasonisi. It has been continuously inhabited since at least the late Neolithic Age (5300-4500 B.C.), while legend has it that the island was named after its first inhabitant, Kimolos, the husband of Side, who was the daughter of Taurus.

In recent years it has become a popular holiday destination, especially for Greeks who are looking for a smaller, quieter destination. They come to swim and snorkel and get their fill of fish and seafood. The island’s cuisine also prominently features local produce like tomatoes, a specific variety of cucumber, onions, wild greens, mushrooms, capers, wild herbs like oregano, fennel and thyme, goat milk products, honey, eggs and poultry.

prepping ladenia recipe

Among the delicacies produced on the island are two main cheeses – manoura and chloro – both made out of goat milk. The first is a hard cheese, coated and aged in grape must, with a slightly spicy result, while the second is fresh, white and creamy, slightly sour, with an herbal aftertaste. Other local products include their traditional rusks with pink peppercorns (the dried berry of the shrub Schinus molle, common on many Greek islands and in other parts of Greece), capers, samphire (kritamo) and sundried tomatoes.

Some of the popular local recipes include tirenia, open-faced cheese pies made with the local fresh cheese; avga me kapari, a kind of scrambled eggs made with onions and capers; and kolokithokapari, a variation on the prior recipe made with zucchini. But the most famous recipe of all from Kimolos is ladenia, a type of pie that resembles a thick-crust vegan pizza, made with olive oil (ladi means “oil”) and topped with sliced tomatoes and onions.

Not only is ladenia simple to make but it also tastes and smells like those dry, salty islands – one bite immediately transports me to Kimolos. Moreover, the traditionally vegan recipe (it’s often topped with only tomatoes, onions and sometimes capers or olives) is healthy and a perfect end-of-summer treat.

If you want to dress it up, you can add cheese, either a crumbled fresh cheese like feta or slivers of an aged cheese like aged Greek graviera or, if you can’t find that, pecorino or parmesan. For a special occasion, I like adding sliced louza, one of my favorite Greek cold cuts made of cured pork tenderloin. You can sub in some sliced prosciutto, bresaola, jamón ibérico, spicy salami or any other cold cut of your choice.

Ladenia

For the crust
500 gr good quality all-purpose flour
10 gr dry yeast
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
330 gr lukewarm water
2 tbsp olive oil + 2-3 tsp for oiling the bowl and dough

For the topping
3-4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 red onions, thinly sliced
70 ml olive oil + 30 ml for generously oiling the pan
2 tsp dried oregano (ideally wild Greek oregano since it’s so aromatic)
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp of capers or sliced kalamata olives (optional)

Sift the flour in a large bowl. Mix in the dry yeast, salt and sugar, and form a well in the center. Add in the olive oil and warm water and knead by hand until it’s all incorporated. Don’t overknead, as it will make the final result denser. Shape your dough into a ball, grease the bowl and dough ball with olive oil, return the dough to bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise for about 1.5 hour until double in size. Uncover.

Use a large baking dish (I use a 35 cm diameter – approximately 14 inch – round pan) and oil it generously. Place the dough in the dish and spread it out using your fingers until it reaches the edges. Spread out the sliced tomatoes and onions on top. Sprinkle with oregano, freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Drizzle the remainder of the olive oil (be generous, this is called ladenia, so it needs the olive oil!) and bake in a preheated oven at 170 C, in the middle rack, for 60-65 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with capers (or the toppings of your choice).

To convert metric measurements to U.S. and British kitchen units, click here.

  • RecipeJanuary 15, 2021 Recipe (0)
    Pies, both sweet and savory, are an essential component of the Greek cuisine. Each […] Posted in Athens
  • RecipeMarch 20, 2024 Recipe (0)
    Served as a sauce, romesco is certainly striking: It has an intense dark orange color […] Posted in Barcelona
  • RecipeFebruary 16, 2024 Recipe (0)
    Some recipes are so deeply connected with the region from which they originate that they […] Posted in Istanbul

Published on September 04, 2020

Related stories

January 15, 2021

Recipe: Babanatsa, a Greek Greens-and-Cheese Pie, Hold the Phyllo

Athens | By Carolina Doriti
AthensPies, both sweet and savory, are an essential component of the Greek cuisine. Each region in the country usually has several different takes on pita (πίτα, or pie, the plural being πίτες, or pites), which is enclosed either in pastry, most commonly phyllo, or using a different method that bypasses pastry altogether. Besides the fillings,…
March 20, 2024

Recipe: Romesco Sauce, A Catalan Staple

Barcelona | By Paula Mourenza
BarcelonaServed as a sauce, romesco is certainly striking: It has an intense dark orange color and a dense texture that saturates and blankets whatever you dip in it. Once in the mouth, you get a piquant touch of vinegar, which is soon enveloped by the nutty creaminess of ground almonds (or perhaps hazelnuts) and olive…
February 16, 2024

Recipe: Fıccın’s Circassian Chicken

Istanbul | By Lian Penso Benbasat
IstanbulSome recipes are so deeply connected with the region from which they originate that they are simply named after that place. Circassian chicken, an appetizer beloved in Turkey and throughout the Caucasus, is such a dish. The recipe itself takes on many different variations across different geographical locations, much like the mosaic of people and…
Select your currency
USD United States (US) dollar
EUR Euro