I have always regarded mopping food from my plate with a piece of bread as one of life's little pleasures – no doubt made twice as enjoyable by the fact that I was forbidden from doing it as a child. Those last puddles of sauce sponged up with a wodge of floury bap or a jagged shard of warm pitta form a natural conclusion to my day's cooking. Given half a chance, I would happily transfer an entire meal from plate to mouth in pieces of warm bread.
Any soft dough, flat or bun-like, can be used to scoop sloppy, spicy or stew-like things from our plates. Yes, the bread adds substance to our supper, but the real point – for me, at least – is the tactile pleasure to be had from holding the hot sauce in a piece of damp, warm bread. It feels as good as it tastes. More than just an edible receptacle with which to trap our food, the bread, saturated with juices, becomes part of the dish – more than you can say for a knife and fork.
I sometimes make some sort of flatbread at home, the sort of slipper-shaped breads you can split and stuff or tear into rough pieces to dunk into taramasalata, puréed chickpeas or chunkily textured tomato sauce. They are perhaps my favourite of all for cleaning my plate. The most straightforward is a flour, yeast and water dough rolled into small ovals and baked. They often leave the oven crisp, so in order to make them soft enough to wipe up a plate, I cover the warm breads with a tea-towel, leaving them suitably pliable.
Yesterday I made a sort of gloopy stew with chickpeas and tomatoes, sharpened with pickled lemon and cooked long enough so their juices were thick and rich. To introduce more depth, I roasted the tomatoes first, tossed around with a chopped ripe pepper and a few cumin seeds, adding a deceptive smoky quality. Just the stuff for bit of bread.
Still in dip-and-swoosh mood, I knocked up a fresh, summer-tasting version of hummus using small, early broad beans. If that seems a bit extravagant (they are quite expensive at the moment) then use frozen. It is a dip I know and love, but this time I made it softer and more moist. Easier, I suppose, to wipe from my plate.
BROAD BEAN AND DILL "HUMMUS"
Serves 2-3 as a dip with bread
shelled broad beans 400g
olive oil 4 tbsp
juice of ½ small lemon
dill a few sprigs
To serve:
soft bread or pitta
Cook the beans in boiling, lightly salted water till tender (this will take about 8-10 minutes, according to their size). Drain them, pop them out of their thin, grey-green skins, and blitz them to a thick purée in a food processor.
Pour in the olive oil, with the blender still going, adding the lemon juice and a grinding of salt. Continue until the mixture is smooth.
Finely chop the dill and stir in. Scrape into a dish then pour over a little olive oil.
A QUICK FLATBREAD
Makes 6 small flatbreads
strong, white, plain flour 450g
sea salt ½ tsp
caster sugar a good pinch
dried yeast a 7g sachet
warm water 300ml
Put the flour into the bowl of a food mixer then add the salt and sugar. Empty the yeast into a bowl, pour on enough water to make a thin paste, then stir in the rest. Pour on to the flour and mix until it forms a soft ball. Tip the dough out on to a floured board and knead, until it feels springy and elastic. Set aside in a bowl covered with a tea towel.
If you prefer to do this by hand, add the yeast and water to the flour and salt, mixing with your hands. Mix in the sugar then turn the lot on to a lightly floured work surface. Knead for 9–10 minutes, folding the far edge of the dough towards you and pushing it back into the dough. It should feel soft, springy and alive. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for an hour or so.
Set the oven to 250C/gas mark 9. When your dough is about four times the size it was, break it into six pieces and push each into a slipper shape. Dust with flour and put them on a baking sheet. Bake at 250C/gas mark 9 for 5 minutes then turn the oven down to 220C/gas mark 7. Continue baking for a further 5 minutes until the underside sounds hollow when you tap it.
CHICKPEAS WITH TOMATOES AND HARISSA
A vegetable-based stew to serve with rice or bread.
Serves 4 generously, as a main course
tomatoes, stalks removed 800g
red peppers approximately 250g
olive oil 110ml
red wine vinegar 3 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
chickpeas 2 x 400g cans
preserved lemons 60g
harissa paste 1 tsp
a handful of basil leaves
To serve:
soft, Middle Eastern-style bread
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Cut each tomato into six and put into a baking dish. Cut the peppers in half, tear out their stalks and seeds, cut the flesh into short chunks then add to the tomatoes.
Add 75ml of the oil, plus the vinegar, cumin and a grinding of black pepper and sea salt. Roast for 50 minutes to an hour until the pepper is soft and the tomatoes are soft and juicy.
Transfer the tomatoes and peppers from the roasting tin to a saucepan. Drain the chickpeas of their canning liquid and rinse them under the cold tap. Mix the drained chickpeas with the tomatoes and peppers.
Chop the preserved lemon, discarding the soft inner pulp. Stir the harissa, chopped lemon and remaining olive oil into the chickpeas, place the pan over a moderate heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes or till it is thoroughly hot and juicy. Season with salt and coarse black pepper.
Fold the basil leaves into the tomatoes, letting them wilt in the heat. When the chickpeas are hot, transfer to a serving dish and serve with warm bread.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or visit theguardian.com/profile/nigelslater for all his recipes in one place
