The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health »

Nancy Harmon Jenkins is a food writer with a passionate interest in Mediterranean cultures and cuisines, sustainable agriculture, and farm-to-market connections. Author of half a dozen highly acclaimed cookbooks, she writes for the New York Times, Saveur, and Food & Wine, and divides her time between her farmhouse outside of Cortona, Italy, and the coast of Maine.

Spanning the Mediterranean from Spain to France, Italy, and Greece, with side trips to Lebanon, Cyprus, and North Africa, this revised and updated edition of Nancy Harmon Jenkins’s acclaimed cookbook offers ninety-two mouthwatering new dishes plus the latest information about the nutritional benefits of one of the world’s healthiest cuisines. But best of all are the recipes—bursting with flavor, easy to prepare, and sure to please everyone at your table, whether you’re cooking for yourself, your family, or your friends.

Known for classic favorites like tabbouleh and ratatouille, flatbreads, pastas, zesty herbs, and flavorful oils pressed from succulent olives, the Mediterranean diet combines delicious taste with health-supportive ingredients as few other cuisines do. With an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, fish, lean meats, and heavenly desserts, here are recipes for over 250 outstanding dishes created for today’s American kitchens. You’ll also find new cooking techniques and a simplified approach to cooking—because simplicity is what the Mediterranean way of eating is all about.

Experienced and novice cooks alike will be inspired by these delectable, seasonally inspired recipes ranging from sweet young Roman-style peas for spring to skewered shrimp for summer, robust North African Pumpkin Soup when autumn is in the air, and warming winter dishes like Lebanese Garlicky Roast Chicken and Cypriote Braised Pork with Wine, Cinnamon, and Coriander—plus a variety of fabulous pizzas and dinner pies, hearty salads like Tuscan panzanella, and satisfying small dishes known as tapas. Also includedis a special selection of traditional dishes prepared for Islamic, Jewish, and Christian holidays that can be enjoyed year round.

Rich in flavor and healthy nutrients but low in saturated fats and cholesterol, here are recipes that will delight your palate, nourish body and soul—and can be prepared with ease in your home kitchen.

Publishers Weekly

This nutritionally sound, flavor-savvy cookbook, first published in 1994, was arguably ahead of its time-at least for American readers. Of course, a wave of American dieters and nutritionists have since come to advocate Mediterranean eating habits, including a largely plant-based diet with modest amounts of proteins and plenty of good fats. Jenkins's updated and revised version will surely reach a wider audience. Jenkins, an American who has lived in Italy, France, Lebanon, Cyprus and Spain, zeros in on the dietary patterns that link these nations. Yet Jenkins's approach is hardly prescriptive; she prefers to gently encourage good habits rather than lay out a daily regime. The 250 recipes are largely traditional dishes, some of which may be novel to her readership, such as Provençal chickpea soup; Moroccan lamb tagine with apricots; and kourabiedes, Greek butter almond cookies. Jenkins has removed the nutritional data from the previous edition, which allows for a greater emphasis on the food itself. Jenkins's recipes are reliable, and though dishes like pizza made from scratch require extra time and effort, the payoff is in the "slow food," Mediterranean approach: an overall respect and enjoyment for what we eat that translates into greater health. Jenkins is an effective ambassador for this way of thinking about food, and her cookbook is a wonderful resource for anyone considering it. (Dec.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.