serves 2
Kalymnos, the sponge-fishermen’s island, has a long and passionate association with all the treasures of the sea. Some of the most unusual seafood in Greece can be found here, as well as some of the country’s most delicious octopus recipes. Local cooks have a way with sea urchin, too, plucking this spiny, iodine-rich creature from the cleanest waters, cracking it open, and enjoying it on the spot, or tossing it with summer tomatoes, onions, and rusks for a bit of Aegean umami.
2 large barley rusks
6 tablespoons (90 ml) extra-virgin Greek olive oil
2 ripe but firm large tomatoes, cored and diced
1 red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
Roe from 10 sea urchins, cleaned, or about 1 cup (250 ml) prepacked sea urchin roe (uni)
2 teaspoons strained fresh lemon juice
Pinch of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Run the rusks under cold water. Hold them vertically to let the last drops of water drain off. Place the rusks on a serving plate and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, onion, sea urchin, lemon juice, and remaining 4 tablespoons (60 ml) olive oil. Season with the salt and pepper to taste. Spoon this mixture evenly over the rusks and serve.
Rusks, aka hardtack, are called paximadia in Greek, after a first-century-AD monk named Paximus who improved on the ancient recipe for dipyros, or twice-baked bread, which is essentially what paximadia are.
The paximadia dough is scored into wedges before being baked, removed from the oven while still soft enough to break apart, then rebaked, typically in a wood-burning oven that is warm but not fired up. Paximadia were a way for home bakers in the Greek countryside to bake long-keeping breads. They were and still are something fishermen carry with them and farmers snack on in the field.
The range of Greek rusks is enormous: barley, wheat, rye, and chickpea flour are all used to make rusks. Crete is famous in Greece for its range of paximadia, but there are regional variations everywhere, sometimes seasoned with cumin or fennel seed, nigella, and herbs or spices. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from the round Cretan dako to large, thick wedges to small nuggets, and they can be used interchangeably to enhance a fresh salad or make a soup more substantial.
Large rusks make a great bed or base over which you can build a salad. You have to soften them, either by topping them with juicy vegetables such as tomatoes and letting them stand for 10 to 15 minutes before serving, or by rehydrating them under running tap water and letting all the water drip off before using them.
Nugget-size rusks can be tossed into salad and will soften with the vegetables’ natural juices and some olive oil.
In the last few years, Greek bakers have developed a rusk basket, similar to the idea of a Parmesan basket, in which you can serve a salad.
A good rule of thumb when using rusks as a base or bed is to top them with 1 to 1½ cups (250 to 325 ml) of salad fixings. Here are some ideas for salad combos:
