Local name: فتوش
Crunchy salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and radish tossed with toasted pita shards, tangy sumac and pomegranate molasses.
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Photo: Unknown, Public domain
Fattoush was invented to use up yesterday’s stale bread. Always add the bread at the last moment, or serve it on the side so everyone can help themselves.
An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.
It is a dried, ground berry, deep red, tart and fruity without the sharp edge of vinegar. Failing that, lean on the lemon juice, accepting that you lose the slightly astringent note and the colour it lends the salad.
Toast the pitas until they are genuinely brittle, let them cool before breaking them up, and add them at the very last toss. If you are serving in stages, offer them separately in a bowl.
The vegetables can be cut a few hours ahead and kept cold, and the dressing can be made the day before. Just do not combine them: salt and lemon draw water out of the tomato and cucumber, and the lettuce wilts.
Why the Lebanese table puts vegetables at the centre, how to balance tahini and lemon, and how to build a mezze for guests.
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The tomato reached Europe in the sixteenth century and was distrusted for two hundred years. What each kitchen made of it, and the handling that matters.
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