Beef bresaola fattoush recipe
Fattoush is a Levantine salad that uses fried stale bread as an ingredient—traditionally pitta or flatbread. Some people refer to it as a Lebanese salad, but its reach extends throughout the Middle East. It’s a relatively simple salad which relies on the fresh flavours of herbs, ground sumac and lemon juice.
I have added my twist using bresaola (air-dried cured beef) to give it a little more earthiness and sweetness to partner with the sourness of the lemon juice and sumac. You can leave it out if you wish to make this a vegetarian option.
Ingredients
For the beef bresaola fattoush- 1 day-old sourdough loaf
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 115 g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
- 5 red grape or teardrop tomatoes, quartered lengthways
- 5 yellow grape or teardrop tomatoes, quartered lengthways
- 15 g coriander/cilantro leaves, chopped, plus extra to garnish
- 15 g chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 3 tbsp baby capers, fried in a little olive oil until slightly crisp
- 1 yellow pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 Lebanese (short) cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
- 10 cos lettuce leaves, roughly torn
- 120 g very thinly sliced beef bresaola, torn into pieces
- 1 lemon, juice only
- 60 ml olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tsp ground sumac
Details
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Recipe Type: Salad
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 10 mins
- Serves: 6
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C.
- Cut the crust off the sourdough loaf and then cut into thick slices. Using your hands, tear the slices into rough chunks about 2 cm (¾ in) square to make about 2 cups worth.
- Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan over high heat. Squash the garlic clove by whacking it with the flat of your cook’s knife and then add it to the pan.
- Let the garlic fry for 1–2 minutes to flavour the oil, then turn the heat down to medium, add the bread chunks and toss so they are coated with the flavoured oil.
- Once coated and the oil is sucked into the bread, discard the garlic, transfer the pan into the oven and roast until the bread is crisp and toasted. Remove and set aside.
- Once you have chopped, quartered, peeled and torn all of the salad ingredients put the hazelnuts, tomatoes, coriander, parsley, fried capers, capsicum, cucumber, cos lettuces leaves, crispy bread chunks and most of the bresaola in a large bowl, and give it all a good toss.
- To make the dressing, put the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, sumac, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper in a bowl. Whisk until combined and then pour over the salad.
- Toss the salad to combine then garnish with a little extra chopped coriander and the reserved bresaola.
Recipe taken from Kitchen Mojo by Paul Mercurio (Murdoch Books, £16.99). Photography by Brett Stevens.
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