Some nice neighbours

YOU’LL BE COOL AS A CUCUMBER (AND TOMATO, AND CAPSICUM) WHEN YOU WHIP UP THIS SUMMERY FATTOUSH PLATTER.

Most tomato-heavy cuisines have some form of tomato/bread/oil combination salad that takes full advantage of their sauciness as a way of softening stale bread, and said bread’s sponginess for soaking up said sauciness. The etymology of the salad known as ‘fattoush’ sits somewhere around ‘crushing’, from its Arabic origins, referring to the crushed flatbread within. Here I’ve kept things extra-large, so you can do all the ‘crushing’ yourself. Let guests pick and choose their favourite bits, like a salad smorgasbord, and remember to go heavy on the crispy pita.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil

1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice

3 garlic cloves, crushed

6-8 tomatoes of various shapes and sizes, sliced into rounds

3-4 smallish Lebanese cucumbers, roughly chopped (or finely mandolined if you’re feeling fancy)

1 red capsicum, sliced

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

1/8 tsp ground sumac

4 small pita pockets or 2 large pita breads, cut into triangular, bite-sized pieces

1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

1 tbsp finely chopped mint

lemon wedges, to serve

HOW TO

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl to make a dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Combine as much (or as little) of the tomato and cucumber on the platter as you like, along with the capsicum and onion. Sprinkle with the sumac, and drizzle with 1/4 cup (60ml) of the dressing. Let everything get friendly.

Meanwhile, for the crispy pita, toss the triangles in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, spread on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden and crispy.

Arrange the pita triangles on the platter. Sprinkle with the herbs and serve straight away, with lemon wedges and the dressing alongside.

Serves 4.

HOT TIP: Pita bread is often discounted as it approaches its use-by date. Snap it up and freeze for using in this recipe, or simply bake as directed above and serve with whatever creamy stuff you have in the fridge.

As a shortcut, you could also toast the whole pita breads in the toaster, then ‘crush’ into smaller bits to serve.

Alice Zaslavsky’s book In Praise of Veg is out now through Murdoch Books. As a special treat, we have five copies (worth $59.99 each) to give away, so head to frankie.com.au/win to enter. Recipe has been tweaked a little to fit frankie formatting.