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ByNancyLindahl More like a salad than a pizza, with a touch of taco, flatbreads are a tasty solu- tion to the dilemma of what to make for dinner on a hot summer evening. Flatbread itself, the base for flatbread the entrée, exists in most parts of the world and goes by dozens of names: some familiar like Naan (India), Focaccia (Italy), Lavash (Ar- menia), Pita (Greece), Pizza (Italy), Matzo (Israel), Flat- brod (Norway), Arepa (Ven- ezuela and Colombia), Fry- bread (USA), Johnnycake (Caribbean), and Tortilla (Mexico, Central and South America), and some more exotic like Flammkuchen/ Tarte flambee covered with bacon and onion from Al- sace, Yufka from Turkey, and Pol Roti made from scraped coconut and wheat flour with green chilies and onion from Sri Lanka. What they have in com- mon is a flat shape. Some, like pizza, are made with yeast, most are unleav- ened. They're as old as the Sumerians and as new as your last issue of Bon Appe- tit, or your latest Pinterest pin, and have been pulled, stretched, rolled and pat- ted into shape, primarily by women for over 7,000 years. My flatbread epiphany came from a Piadine, an Italian flatbread baked in a pizza oven then topped with a cool salad, served by Tomatina's restaurant in Walnut Creek. The con- trast between piping hot crust and cool salad in something that you folded like a gigantic taco to eat was interesting and come- back-for-more delicious — an idea worthy of consid- eration for the home table. More a process than a recipe, Chef Rogelio Ja- cinto shares his Turkey Pia- dine method on a You Tube video. Tomatina's rolls their pizza-like dough, but you could also stretch it into an irregular 12-inch circle with your fingertips. The raw dough is brushed with garlic infused olive oil and sprinkled with grated Par- mesan before being placed on a hot oven rack, or on your barbecue grill. The dough puffs and lightly browns as it bakes, 4-5 min- utes in a pizza oven, longer at home, and you want to pull it off the heat when it is still supple enough to fold in half. Meanwhile, toss the salad component in a bowl — in this case baby mixed greens, thin slices of tur- key breast, red onion, Feta cheese, grated Parmesan, and red wine vinaigrette. When the hot flatbread is removed from the oven, quickly brush it with a ci- lantro aioli and top with the salad. Although it looks like something you should approach with a knife and fork, lay down your tools, fold it in half and pick the piadine up to eat. Tomatina's other piadine creations include a chicken version with chilled oven- roasted chicken — left- overs are great here — baby spinach, roasted red pep- pers, mozzarella, parme- san, red bell pepper-garlic puree, oregano and citrus vinaigrette. A Caesar ver- sion is made with hearts of romaine, Caesar dress- ing, roasted garlic, mozza- rella and parmesan cheeses, anchovies optional. Their steak version uses chilled balsamic-marinated steak, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, roasted garlic puree, par- mesan and ranch dressing. You need a base to build your flatbread on and there are several ways to go. You can use a pre-cooked Boboli or naan — warm it on the grill before you start. You can make pizza dough from scratch, or purchase ready- made pizza dough either fresh or frozen, wheat or white, at the grocery store, then shape it and bake on the grill. I like this flatbread recipe by Erin McDowell, Food 52 2014, because it's not sweet, like some store-bought pizza dough: Grilledflatbread Makes4mediumflatbreads 3cupsbreadflour(396g) 1teaspoon kosher salt (3.5 g) 1teaspoon instant yeast (4 g) 11/4 cups warm water (292.5g) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (43g), plus more for brush- ing Flaky salt, for finishing Leaves of 1to 2sprigs rose- mary, for finishing In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt to combine. Add the yeast and mix to combine. Make a well in the center of the bowl, and add the water and olive oil. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the mixture forms a shaggy mass. On a lightly floured work surface, knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball, 6to 9minutes (or 3to 4 minutes on medium speed in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook). Transfer the dough to a medium, lightly oiled bowl. Loosely cover, and let rise until the dough is double in size, 30minutes to 1hour. Preheat the grill or grill pan until smoking hot. Clean and oil the grates of the grill. While the grill is heating up, divide the dough into four (roughly even) pieces; it will be on the sticky side, so oil your hands a little to make the dough easier to handle. Holding the dough on its outside edges, stretch it gently, letting gravity do most of the work to form it into an oblong shape. Lightly oil both sides of the dough. (I do this on a baking sheet that is greased in oil — I stretch the dough and place it onto the baking sheet, which is covered in oil. When I get out to the grill, I flip it over quickly to oil the other side, and, while it's still in my hand, I throw it onto the grill grates). Cook until golden brown, 3 to 4minutes per side. When the breads are still hot from the grill, brush with more olive oil, and top with flaky salt and rosemary leaves. They are best warm, but will keep for a couple days too. They make for a good picnic lunch with chicken salad, or — my favorite — slath- ered with pesto and ricotta cheese. This is way simpler than the instructions make it sound and the flatbreads turn out very well cooked directly on the grill. You can brush them with ol- ive oil and clean out the re- frigerator — we used left- over chicken and sausage, feta cheese, goat cheese, kalamata olives, green on- ions, roasted red peppers, Parmesan, arugula. After building the toppings, we tucked the flatbreads back on the grill to make the cheeses oozy and enjoyed our creations. If you'd like a more for- mal recipe, try this one: Lemon artichoke pesto chicken flatbread For two flatbreads: 1cup cooked chicken, diced 2cups grated smoked Gouda cheese 1cup freshly grated Parme- san 2Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped Artichokelemonpesto: (or you can use a good quality artichoke tapenade) 1 6.5ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese 1/3 cup olive oil 1Tablespoon lemon juice 4cloves garlic, minced pinch of salt and pepper Pulse pesto ingredients in a small food processor until well blended. Spread 2Tablespoons of the pesto on each flatbread. Top with chicken, Gouda and Parmesan cheese. Set back on the hot grill until the cheese is melted. Garnish with fresh parsley. When you don't feel en- ergetic enough to make flatbread from scratch, naan comes in handy. Naan is a traditional In- dian bread served with curries and dals, but it works beautifully as a make-shift flatbread. In Chico, you can find Naan at Guzzetti's Catering and Indian food at the Wednes- day, Thursday Night and Saturday farmers markets as well as at most local grocery stores. Here's a quick lunch or light super when it's too hot to cook: 10-minute hummus and Greek salad naan recipe 2whole wheat naan ¼ cup hummus 2Tablespoons crumbled feta cheese kalamata olives, pitted & halved 1cup chopped cucumber 1cup chopped tomato thinly sliced red onion 1cup thinly sliced romaine lettuce 1teaspoon balsamic vinegar Warm the naan on the grill, then spread 2Tablespoons of hummus on each naan. Top each with half of the crumbled feta, kalamata olives, red onion, cucumber, tomato and romaine let- tuce. Drizzle ½ teaspoon of balsamic vinegar over the lettuce. Cut each naan in half and serve. Have fun and enjoy all 13 glorious summer weekends before Labor Day! SWEET BASIL AND THE BEE Fl at br ea ds i de al f or d in ne r on a hot summer night PHOTO BY NANCY LINDAHL Clean-out-the-refrigerator flatbread includes fresh mozzarella, black olives, rosemary, le over chicken, sauteed mushrooms, roasted red peppers, a bit of herbed goat cheese, green onions and Parmesan. By Jennifer Peltz and Meghan Barr The Associated Press NEW YORK New York City could become the first city in the U.S. to require a warning label on high-so- dium menu items at chain restaurants, health officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The city's Health Depart- ment will propose Wednes- day that all chain restau- rants add a symbol re- sembling a salt shaker on menus next to food prod- ucts that contain more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium, equal to about 1 teaspoon of salt. Sodium increases the risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart at- tack and stroke. Studies have found that the vast majority of dietary salt comes from processed and restaurant foods. But aver- age sodium consumption is about 3,400 milligrams of sodium each day. Only about one in 10 Americans meets the 1 tea- spoon guideline. "This doesn't change the food. It enables people to identify single items that have a level of salt that is extremely high," said Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, com- missioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "So that they can modify their menu selections accord- ingly." The proposal will be in- troduced at the city's board of health meeting. If the board votes to consider the rule, it will move to a pub- lic comment phase before a final vote in September. The department hopes the so- dium warnings will appear on menus by December. The salt-reduction cam- paign is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's goal to reduce premature mortality by 25 percent by 2040, health of- ficials said. Michael Jacobson, exec- utive director for the Cen- ter for Science in the Pub- lic Interest, a Washing- ton-based advocacy group, called it "an extremely im- portant proposal." "High sodium levels are probably the biggest health problem related to our food supply," Jacobson said. "New York City is showing true leadership in doing what it can do to lower so- dium levels in restaurants by highlighting to consum- ers the dishes that are the most outlandishly high in sodium." Still, he called it a con- servative approach, given that items would only get special labels if they have a full day's worth of sodium. A meal with even half that amount would still have too much salt, he said. Marion Nestle, a food policy expert at New York University, said the pro- posal might encourage res- taurants to help figure out ways to cut down on salt. "The big problem here is nobody wants to go first. Food companies don't want to start reducing their salt unless everybody else does," Nestle said. "That's why we need regulation in my view." The head of the Salt In- stitute, a trade association for salt producers, called the proposal "misguided" and based on old informa- tion. "The symbol is based on faulty, incorrect govern- ment targets" that have been discredited by re- search over the last de- cade, said the group's presi- dent, Lori Roman. "They're too low ... and if followed, could actually harm peo- ple." Last year, a large interna- tional study questioned the conventional wisdom that most people should cut back on salt, suggesting that the amount most folks consume is OK for heart health. The study followed 100,000 people in 17 coun- tries and found that very high levels of salt were a problem, especially for peo- ple with high blood pres- sure, but that too little salt also can do harm. Other scientists have disagreed about the need to cut back on sodium, saying most people still consume way too much. Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet. They rep- resent 7 percent of the salt that the average American eats in a day, according to a 2012 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been pressing the food in- dustry to voluntarily re- duce sodium content and is working on new sodium guidelines. Salt reduction has been the focus of public health campaigns. For years, New York City and other groups have been trying to persuade food manu- facturers and chain res- taurants to reduce salt content by more than 50 percent over the next de- cade. The Centers for Dis- ease Control and preven- tion and other federal agencies have had so- dium-reduction talks with food companies. Under former Mayor Mi- chael Bloomberg, the city led development of salt-re- duction targets for various table staples and got com- panies to start commit to them voluntarily, starting in 2010. While many compa- nies said they were able to shrink the salt without cus- tomers complaining — or sometimes even seeming to notice— that wasn't always the case. The Campbell Soup Co. reversed course two years after announced in 2009 that it was lower- ing salt in half its soups; the company said it brought back some higher-sodium soups out of concern about the taste. SALT UNDER SCRUTINY NYC officials want high-sodium warnings on menus THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Bistro French Onion Soup Bread Bowl from a Panera bread restaurant contains more sodium than the recommended daily limit of 2,300milligrams, which is equal to about 1teaspoon of salt. 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