Dakos Salad
I love the island of Crete, particularly the mountains and their valleys bang in the middle, and I love the nature and the food. I make the Greek-inspired salad at home when the tomatoes are at the best and most abundant in August and September.
The base of this salad are barley rusks, called paximadia in Greek, which are dry, hard, savoury biscuits. You can find them in specialty Mediterranean grocery stores or online. This is my
super-quick version where I replace Mizithra cheese with easier to find Feta. You can also add sliced red onions and red wine vinegar.
Serves 3-4
- 500g tomatoes (ideally mixed varieties), grated or quickly blitzed
- 4 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
- Good large pinch of flaky salt
- Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
- 150g, 3 barley rusks
- A good handful (1 heaped tbsp) good black olives (optional)
- 1 tbsp capers, left whole
- 100g block of feta
- Small handful fresh oregano and a few flower sprigs put aside
Combine the tomatoes, add the oil, salt, and pepper. Place the rusks in the bottom of a large flat bowl or plate, pour over the tomato mix, and leave for 15 minutes or so, in the warm. The tomato juice is then absorbed into the rusks.
Scatter olives, capers, feta and herbs over the top, drizzle with a little more oil and scatter with the oregano flower sprigs as you serve.
