Ionian Rusk with Tomato and Oregano (Riganada)

Riganada is what Kefalonia and Lefkada do with bread that has gone past its best, and it is the Ionian cousin of Cretan dakos. Barley rusk, a splash of water, a great deal of olive oil, grated tomato and enough dried oregano to make the whole plate smell of a hillside in August.

The name says everything about the priorities. Rigani is oregano, and in riganada the oregano is not a finishing touch but the reason the dish has a name. Ionian oregano is picked in flower and dried on the stalk, and a good pinch of it will carry the whole plate.

In Kefalonian homes it turns up at breakfast, on a meze table, and as the thing handed to a guest who has arrived unannounced. It takes five minutes and it needs nothing switched on, which is exactly the point in the middle of a Greek summer.

Key preparation steps

1. Moisten the barley rusk very briefly.
2. Pour over a generous amount of olive oil.
3. Grate ripe tomato over the top.
4. Finish with oregano, salt and cheese if you like.

How wet should the rusk be?

Barely. Hold the rusk under a running tap for two or three seconds a side, or flick water over it with your fingers, and then stop. The aim is a rusk that yields to a bite rather than one that has turned to porridge.

The tomato and the oil finish the job. Grated tomato is mostly water and it keeps soaking in while the plate sits, so a rusk that felt slightly too dry when you dressed it will be exactly right five minutes later.

Why grate the tomato instead of chopping it?

Grating a halved tomato on the coarse side of a box grater leaves the skin flat in your palm and gives you pulp and juice with no tough pieces. That pulp spreads over the whole surface of the rusk and soaks down into it.

Chopped tomato sits in cubes on top, sheds its juice onto the plate rather than into the bread, and leaves half the rusk dry. It is the single detail that separates a good riganada from a dull one.

What oregano should I use?

Dried, always, and preferably Greek oregano still on the stalk that you crumble between your palms as it goes on. Rubbing it warms the leaf and releases the oils, and the difference in smell is immediate.

Fresh oregano is the wrong plant for this job: it is grassier and much milder, and riganada needs the concentrated, almost peppery flavour that only comes from drying. If your dried oregano smells of nothing, it is old, and no quantity of it will rescue the dish.

What goes on top?

The base version is oil, tomato, oregano and salt and it needs nothing else. Beyond that, Kefalonian cooks add crumbled feta or fresh mizithra, a few olives, capers, or a couple of sardines from a tin.

Keep the additions to two at most. Riganada is a dish of four ingredients doing very little, and the moment it becomes a loaded bruschetta it stops tasting like itself.

What matters in this dish