Fattoush

Fattoush belongs to the broader category of fattet dishes, meals that reuse dry or stale bread, an old and efficient practice for avoiding food waste in Levantine kitchens. The name derives from the Arabic word fatt, meaning to break or crumble, referring directly to how the flatbread is torn by hand into irregular pieces. What sets fattoush apart from other similar salads in the region is the use of sumac, a red-purple spice with a tart taste extracted from the berries of a wild shrub, a traditional alternative to lemon in periods when citrus wasn't readily available. While some modern recipes include tomatoes after their arrival from the New World, older versions relied exclusively on traditional Levantine vegetables and sumac for acidity.