Ezme

About

Ezme is a finely chopped (not puréed) salad of tomato, pepper, onion, parsley, chilli, pomegranate molasses or lemon, and olive oil. It should be juicy, sour and a little fiery. A food processor turns it into salsa. Use a knife. It sits next to bread and grilled meat. Chop tomato, sweet pepper, onion, parsley and chilli by hand into tiny dice; the knife is the method. Salt, then add lemon or pomegranate molasses, olive oil, and maybe a pinch of cumin or isot pepper. Drain only if the tomatoes are flooding the plate; a little liquor is for bread. Make it close to serving so the onion stays bright. A food processor will puree it into salsa; stop yourself. Taste after five minutes, because salt pulls juice and the seasoning changes. Serve with grilled meat or just with bread. It does not keep overnight with the same crunch. Isot or pul biber gives a slower heat than fresh chilli alone. If your tomatoes are pale, add an extra spoon of molasses rather than more salt. Stir with a spoon once, then stop; overmixing bruises the parsley into sludge. Bread is the correct utensil.

Substitutions

• Pomegranate molasses → Lemon juice plus a pinch of sugar

  Brighter, less sticky.

Tips

• Lemon can stand in for pomegranate molasses. You lose the dark sour.
• Walnuts are a Gaziantep extra, not required.

History & culture

Southeast and city ocakbaşı tables. Acılı means spicy. Mild versions exist; they are less interesting. Ocakbaşı and kebab houses in the southeast and in Turkish cities put acılı ezme on the table as a default, next to bread that exists to scoop it. Mild versions appear for children and for tourists; they are less interesting. It is a salad and a relish at once. Home cooks make it when tomatoes are actually good; winter greenhouse fruit needs molasses and chilli to taste like anything. It is not muhammara (that is walnut and pepper paste) and not acılı ezme from a jar. Eat it with kebabs, with lahmacun, or with a spoon. Hands and bread are correct. A fork-only serving is a restaurant compromise. At a grill restaurant it arrives before you have ordered, which tells you it is considered part of the table, not a side you might skip. Home versions can be lunch with nothing but bread and white cheese. In winter, people still make it because kebab houses do, even when the tomatoes are sulking.

Pepper-tomato mezes followed New World crops. The kebab-house plate is 20th-century urban grill culture. Pomegranate molasses is an older souring habit that found a new partner in tomato. Food processors in home kitchens tempted people to blend it, which cooks still warn against. Restaurant standardisation made ezme a named meze rather than 'the chopped salad'. Diaspora Turkish restaurants export a milder, thicker version that travels. There is no Ottoman court recipe that this must match. What is historical is the chilli-tomato-onion triad after peppers arrived; what is modern is the ocakbaşı saucer. Chopped salads of onion and herb are older than tomato; tomato made them red and juicy in a new way. The ocakbaşı saucer is restaurant culture from the last century, riding that older chopping habit. Naming ezme keeps it from being filed under salsa, which is a different knife and a different pantry.

Traditional

Provenance: Editorial adaptation.

Similar dishes

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In this kitchen

• Tomato
• Bell pepper
• Onion
• Parsley
• Fresh chilli
• Pomegranate molasses
• Turkey Passport

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