Kalymnos Barley Rusk Salad (Mermizeli)

Every Kalymnian taverna serves mermizeli and no two versions are quite the same. The frame is fixed: round barley rusks broken up, ripe tomato, onion, capers, olives, an enormous amount of olive oil and a soft island cheese over the top. Everything else is the cook's own.

It reads like a horiatiki until you eat it. The rusk goes in broken rather than whole and it sits underneath everything, so it drinks the tomato juice and the oil and softens into the salad rather than being a plate for it. That is what makes it a Kalymnian dish rather than a Cretan one.

The island details are worth chasing. Kalymnos grows caper bushes on its bare rock and uses the leaves as well as the buds, and the local wild oregano, called throumbi, is more savoury and less sharp than mainland rigani. Sardines from a tin are a common addition and turn the salad into a meal.

Key preparation steps

1. Break barley rusks into rough pieces in a wide bowl.
2. Add chopped tomato, onion, cucumber, capers and olives.
3. Dress heavily with olive oil and vinegar.
4. Top with soft cheese and oregano and let it stand.

What kind of rusk does mermizeli need?

Round barley kouloures, the thick ring-shaped rusks sold across the Dodecanese and Crete. Barley rather than wheat matters here, because barley rusk stays chewy as it absorbs rather than turning to paste.

Break them by hand into pieces roughly the size of a walnut. Do not cut them and do not crush them fine. Uneven pieces mean some are still crunchy at the end while others have gone soft, and that contrast is half the pleasure of the dish.

Should the rusk be soaked first?

Only just. A very quick pass under the tap, or a tablespoon of water flicked over the broken pieces, is enough to take the worst of the hardness off. The tomato and the oil do the rest.

Soaking properly is the one mistake that ruins mermizeli. A rusk that has drunk a cup of water has nothing left to absorb, so the tomato juice and the olive oil pool at the bottom of the bowl instead of going into the bread.

Which cheese goes on top?

Kopanisti is the island answer: a soft, sharp, faintly peppery spreadable cheese that is smeared over the top rather than crumbled. It is made across the Cyclades and Dodecanese and Greek delis stock it.

Fresh mizithra, anthotyro, or a soft feta mashed with a fork and a splash of oil all stand in well. What you want is something creamy enough to coat the rusk, which is why a hard dry cheese is the wrong choice here.

How long should mermizeli sit before serving?

Ten to fifteen minutes. That is enough for the rusk to take up the tomato juice and the oil while keeping some resistance in the middle of the larger pieces.

Dress it and leave it on the counter, not in the fridge. Cold flattens the tomato and stiffens the olive oil, and mermizeli is a dish that wants to be eaten at the temperature of a Kalymnian afternoon.

What matters in this dish