This bread salad is delicious as we bid adieu to summer
Tartine All Day: Modern
Recipes for the Home Cook, by Elisabeth Prueitt (Lorena Jones Books, $40), is a book you will want to refer to for recipes that are refreshing, creative and doable. I can’t wait to go back and try dishes such as aquachile with shrimp and scallops, avgolemono, and cider caramel pork ribs. I selected fattoush, a Middle Eastern version of Italian panzanella, for you to try while the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are at their height of the season.
Fattoush is usually made with toasted pita and a melange of colorful vegetables, then finished with the tangy spice sumac. Here the author switches out the go-to Middle Eastern pita bread for countrystyle bread. You can also use a ciabatta or baguette. The bread is oven-toasted with a drizzle of olive oil to give it flavor and texture.
The vegetables should be cut the same size for ease in eating, and the sumac adds a unique tangy lemon flavor.
In many cuisines, you’ll find dishes that cleverly repurpose cooked staples such as rice, tortillas and bread in delicious ways. Think fried rice, tortilla soup or chips,
and bread salads or puddings.
This is an easy salad to put together for a light meal, along with some roasted baby eggplant. You’ll find a substitution for using pita bread below, if you prefer. Don’t be afraid to add other veggies you like, including carrots, celery, avocado, artichoke hearts or even hearts of palm.
FATTOUSH WITH COUNTRY BREAD Serves 6 Ingredients:
3 slices country-style bread
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sumac
2 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more as needed Ground black pepper
2 red or yellow bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 red onion (or 1/4, if large), cut into 1/2-inch slices
3 tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
4 or 5 small Persian cucumbers, cut into 1/2-inch dice
5 radishes, very thinly sliced
1 bunch mint, coarsely chopped
Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the croutons, pull the bread apart into large irregular pieces, about 1-inch square. Toss the bread in a bowl with the olive oil, spread out in one layer on a baking sheet, and toast in the oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Set the croutons aside to cool.
Mix the sumac and water, and set aside for 10 minutes
Whisk together the red-wine vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, pepper and sumac water, and set aside.
Toss the bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and mint together with the croutons. Dress with three-quarters of the dressing, adding more as needed, and serve. If making the salad ahead, dress the vegetables without the croutons, and keep refrigerated, adding the bread 10 minutes before serving.
Note: You can substitute 4 rounds of day-old pita bread, also torn into irregular pieces, for the country-style bread. Proceed as directed for the country-style bread.
Art: Reprinted with permission from Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook, by Elisabeth Prueitt, copyright 2017. Published by Lorena Jones Books/Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Diane Rossen Worthington is an authority on new American cooking. She is the author of 18 cookbooks, including Seriously Simple Parties, and is a James Beard Award-winning radio-show host. Contact her at www.seriouslysimple.com.