A summer’s lunch outdoors and we are dipping roughly torn bread – chewy, the colour of baking parchment – into a dish of olive oil. We crush flakes of sea salt between our fingers and crumble it over the glistening bread.
We dunk our bread differently in summer. No soup or stew to bloat our crusts, but instead pieces of simple white sandwich loaf to sponge up the raspberry and redcurrant juices of a summer pudding; jagged ciabatta heavy with olive oil and tomatoes from a panzanella or perhaps a pan bagnat – which literally means wet bread – where the bun becomes saturated with the liquor of roasted peppers, crushed basil and olives.
On a sunny day last week I toasted slices of brioche then pressed their cut sides into a pool of elderflower cordial, so the butter-rich yellow bread became sodden with the flower-scented syrup, then loaded it with poached gooseberries and their juice. We ate our toasts with cream poured from a squat china jug. I remember wondering if the same could be done with raspberries and a kirsch-spiked raspberry cordial.
Unlike sourdough, white bread and brioche, flatbread has the advantage of soaking up dressing or juices while staying relatively crisp. I often toast a piece and tear it, still warm, into a tomato salad. Even a small amount of bread makes a salad more satisfying, more like a meal. You can bake your own – the dough will rise especially quickly in this weather – or toast one from the shops.
Flatbread is less hassle to make than a loaf and you don’t even need to turn the oven on. I cook mine, studded with chopped rosemary, on the same griddle as I cook lamb chops or shell-on prawns, watching in amazement as the flour-dusted discs of dough puff, bubble and blister. Good though they were ripped up among the tomatoes and goat’s cheese, it did cross my mind to open the bread up like a purse and stuff the salad within.
There will be more soaked breads as the summer runs on. Thick white toast baked with butter and apricots; stamp-sized pieces of fruit loaf sprinkled with sugar and grilled and served with a fruit compote. There may be slices of panettone toasted and dipped into glasses of iced muscat with raspberries or slices of peach. Whatever else turns up this season, there will always be bread, and it will be dripping with juice.
Tomato and goat’s cheese salad with rosemary flatbread
You can use ready-made flatbread, but it is worth giving it a few minutes on the griddle or under the grill first. Warm bread soaks up the dressing more readily.
For the flatbread:
strong bread flour 250g
dried yeast 7g
warm water 175ml
rosemary 2 tbsp, chopped
For the dressing:
basil 15g
parsley 10g
olive oil 125ml
tomatoes 1 kg, assorted sizes and colours
soft, fresh goat’s cheese 250g
Put the flour in a large bowl, add a half a tsp of finely crushed sea salt, mix in the yeast then add enough of the water to make a slightly sticky dough. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured board and knead for 4 or 5 minutes then return to the bowl, cover with a clean tea cloth and leave in a warm, draught-free place to rise for about 30-40 minutes.
To make the dressing, put the basil in a blender. Add the parsley leaves, pour in the oil and process to a vivid green dressing and set aside, covered to prevent the colour darkening.
When the dough has risen to almost twice its size, knock it back gently so it deflates, then add the rosemary and work it into the dough. Tear the dough into 8 equal lumps and roll each one into a thin disc about the size of your palm. Warm a griddle or a dry cast-iron frying pan. When it is too hot to hold your hand over for more than a few seconds, place a disc of pastry on the pan and let it bubble and swell, turning gold, brown and black. Remove and continue with the rest. You won’t need more than a couple for the salad, so keep them warm and serve at the table in lieu of the usual bread.
Slice the tomatoes thickly and place on a serving dish. Break the goat’s cheese into pieces and tuck among the tomatoes. Spoon the dressing over the tomatoes and cheese then tear some of the warm bread and scatter over the salad. Leave for about 10 minutes before serving.
Gooseberry brioche bruschetta
I used brioche rolls. Just as suitable are slices of brioche loaf found in large supermarkets. The toasting is crucial.
Serves 6
gooseberries 400g
caster sugar 2 tbsp
brioche rolls 6, or 12 small slices of brioche
elderflower cordial 300ml
elderflowers a few
double cream to serve
Put the gooseberries in a medium-sized saucepan with a splash of water and the sugar. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes, until the berries are opaque and soft. Remove from the heat before the berries collapse.
Cut the brioche rolls in half and lay them snugly on a grill tray. (If you are using slices cut from a brioche loaf, place the slices next to one another.) Cook under an overhead grill till pale gold.
Pour the elderflower cordial into a dish. Remove the toasted brioche from the tin and dip firmly, cut-side-down, into the cordial. Return each one to the grill pan.
Spoon the gooseberries and their juices over the brioche, return briefly to the grill and serve, if you wish, with a few elderflowers. Pass a jug of double cream around the table – gooseberries and cream being a marriage made in heaven.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@NigelSlater
Greenfeast: Spring, Summer by Nigel Slater is out now (4th Estate, £22). To order a copy for £16.99, go to guardianbookshop.com
