October Thrifty Week #4 ~ #1 Mediterranean

Mediterranean, published in 1999.  Over 300 recipes from the shores of Spain, France, Italy, the North Africa coastline and the islands of Cyprus and Malta. The introductory chapters touch on the local ingredients used in the dishes including vegetables, fruits, seafood, nuts and herbs and spices. The book was probably printed during at the start of the Mediterranean Diet movement that is still in strong use today. According to the book, the three main components of Mediterranean cuisine are bread, oil (usually olive) and wine.

At the start of each chapter a summary of locales and foods of each region is discussed. Each recipe is one to two pages in length with many instructional photos of  preparation steps and cooking tips. The dishes represented include appetizers, soups & salads, entrées vegetables and desserts (a very small chapter). The meat chapter contains over 20+ lamb dishes and a few each for pigeon and rabbit. There are also quite a few recipes with several varieties of rice.