Fattoush — crisp salad with sumac and toasted pita

pareve Israeli and Mediterranean · easy · 30 min, including 20 hands-on

Romaine, tomatoes, cucumber and radishes with a lemon, sumac and pomegranate molasses dressing, finished at the very last moment with golden pita shards brushed with olive oil and seasoned with sumac.

Ingredients for two

Method

1. Set the oven to 190 °C. While it heats, about 10 minutes, split the pita into two thin layers and brush both sides of each with the 15 g olive oil. Tear into 3 cm pieces and spread in a single layer on a small baking tray. Season with 0.5 g salt.
2. In the serving bowl, combine 3 g sumac, 1 level tsp, with the grated garlic and 20 g lemon juice. Leave to infuse while the bread bakes and you cut the vegetables: the acid mellows the raw garlic and the sumac turns the juice pink.
3. Once the oven is hot, bake the pita for 8–10 minutes, tossing once: the pieces should be golden, brittle and dry right through. As soon as they come out, sprinkle 1 g sumac over the hot bread and leave to cool uncovered so it becomes crisp. Meanwhile, cut the romaine into wide strips, the tomatoes into 1.5 cm pieces, roughly deseeding them if very juicy, the cucumber into 1.5 cm pieces, the radishes into thin rounds and the spring onions on the diagonal. Dry off any water left from washing. Roughly chop the parsley and tear the mint by hand.
4. Add the pomegranate molasses, 2.5 g salt and 30 g olive oil to the lemon and sumac mixture. Whisk into a smooth dressing with a sharp, lightly fruity flavour. Taste: if it stings your tongue, add another spoonful of oil; if the molasses is sweet, add the remaining lemon juice. Add the vegetables and herbs, then toss for 30 seconds to coat all the leaves. They should glisten without swimming in liquid, with no concentrated dressing left at the bottom.
5. Just before taking the bowl to the table, fold in half the cooled pita and scatter the rest over the top. Sprinkle the last pinch of sumac, the remaining gram, over the bread on top. Serve within 5 minutes: the pieces mixed into the salad will absorb a little dressing, while those on top stay crisp.

On your plate

Cooking tips

For the Lebanese grandmothers' version, fry the pita pieces for 1 minute in 2 cm of hot neutral oil instead of baking. Drain on kitchen paper and immediately season with salt and sumac. In season, replace half the romaine with 50 g purslane, regela at summer markets, with the leaves picked from their stems: this is the herb of traditional fattoush. Add 60 g finely diced green pepper too, if you enjoy its crunch. The toasted bread, vegetables and dressing can be prepared ahead, but keep them separate until serving. Sumac and pomegranate molasses bring two different kinds of sharpness; choose genuinely tart pomegranate molasses, rather than a sweet syrup. Do not keep the salad for the following day once the bread has been added: the contrast in textures will be lost.

Equipment : small baking tray, pastry brush, salad bowl, whisk, knife, fine grater for the garlic, salad spinner or tea towel

A country salad of the Levant, from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, also adopted into Israeli cooking; the sumac is infused in lemon and the pita split into two layers, as Lebanese cooks do.