A true foodie would never let the vagaries of weather dictate the fate of his/her taste buds. While we will happily adhere to a diet of buttermilk, salads and fresh seasonal fruit for most of the week, the dormant inner glutton seeks attention during the weekend, despite the heat.
So, when talks of an impending sleepover at our place were underway, the first thing on my agenda was the menu. The food needed to be healthy, light on the stomach and, most importantly, rate high on the taste-o-metre. I decided on a chilled seasonal soup, a colourful salad, and baked fish with a light, crispy topping called pangritata.
This topping takes just minutes to put together, but transforms the look and feel of a dish. I came across this idea some years ago, while watching a television show in which a chef from a small restaurant in Italy added this crumbly topping to his pasta dish. It’s called pangritata and is apparently known as the ‘poor man’s Parmesan’.
Grilled tomatoes sprinkled with pangritata
This simple topping came into existence as a substitute for those who could not afford Parmesan cheese, and has become almost as popular as the cheese itself. It involves crumbling slightly stale bread and mixing it with finely chopped garlic, fresh or dried herbs and some citrus zest. Usually, this is fried in a pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil until it becomes dark and crunchy, and is set aside to be strewn on the dish of choice. It enhances the taste of simple dishes: a bowl of spaghetti, grilled tomatoes, baked potatoes and even assorted roasted vegetables or meats.
When baking, what works best for me is to mix in the olive oil directly into the bread crumb mixture and layer it over the seafood or vegetable, instead of frying it separately in a pan. This way, it coats everything evenly and looks extremely appetising. When adding to cooked dishes, however, it’s better to keep it fried beforehand, and sprinkle atop the final dish.
The variations can be fun. A gluten-free version using finely shredded coconut is an equally versatile option. Toast the coconut first in a dry pan till it resembles browned bread crumbs.
Along with the bread crumbs, I also add fine shavings of almonds, walnuts, dried chilli flakes, grated nutmeg, flavoured salt etc. The pangritata can, therefore, be a way to include extra nutrition, and has now firmly parked itself in my list of culinary pleasures.
