Pita, Greek salad & radish tzatziki - the picnic of a summer evening

A crunchy Greek salad, a zesty pink radish tzatziki, a warm pita bread: the summer nomadic meal, to carry to the end of the garden or to slip into a basket.

An evening idea, when it's still hot

There are days when cooking refuses to heat up. You chop, assemble, fold into a warm bread, and take it all to the cool, on the terrace, in the garden, in the park. This Greek salad and radish tzatziki pita is part of that family: nothing that weighs, everything that crunches, and that yogurt freshness that makes the return home almost sweeter than expected.

It's a Mediterranean fusion of today - contemporary Italian cuisine enjoys marrying Greece (the horiatiki salad, frank: tomato, cucumber, olive, feta) and the Middle East (the pita, this Levantine flatbread that we have known since Antiquity). The idea is simple: fold a salad into a warm bread and take it with you - a gesture that the Mediterranean has practiced since always, from souvlaki to shawarma, and that we adapt here with a radish tzatziki to change from the cucumber.

The ingredients (for 2 generous pitas)

• 2 pita breads (ideally whole wheat, found in Middle Eastern bakeries)
• 2 ripe and fragrant tomatoes
• 1 small cucumber
• ½ sweet red onion
• A handful of pitted Kalamata olives
• 60 g of feta
• Dried oregano, olive oil, salt

For the radish tzatziki:

• 1 bunch of pink radishes (a dozen)
• 200 g of thick Greek yogurt
• 1 clove of germless garlic
• ½ lemon juice
• Fresh dill or mint, salt

Step by step

First, the tzatziki, so that it can rest. Wash the radishes, cut the tops (do not throw them away - they make an excellent pesto). Grate the radishes on a medium grater, lightly salt, let drain for ten minutes then press in a clean towel. Mix with Greek yogurt with crushed garlic, a drizzle of lemon, chopped herbs. Taste, adjust. Reserve in the fridge.

Then, the Greek salad. Cut tomatoes and cucumber into small dice, onion into thin half-moons. Add chopped olives, crumbled feta. Salt very little (the feta and olives already salt), oregano, a drizzle of olive oil. Do not put vinegar: the tomato and cucumber are enough, we keep the crunch.

Assembly. Pass the pitas 30 seconds in a dry pan or in the oven, open them delicately, spread generously with tzatziki, fill with salad. Close, cut in half, take away.

Tips & variations

• Gluten-free: replace the pita with a large leaf of romaine lettuce, in a wrap.
• A little more gourmet: add a slice of grilled eggplant with olive oil.
• Don't have pink radishes? The cucumber in classic tzatziki works of course, or grated fennel for an aniseed note.
• The tops: blended with pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a little parmesan, they make a bright green pesto to keep in the fridge for three days.

The right moment

To be eaten within the hour that follows - the tzatziki moistens the bread if you wait too long. It's a cuisine of the moment, without afterthought: you sit down, you bite into it, you wipe the tzatziki at the corner of the lip, and summer has a taste of effortless party.