Mediterranean Recipes
262 recipes found
Herbed and Butterflied Leg of Lamb
Eggplant and Chickpea Stew
Grilled Octopus With Chickpeas and Oregano
Smoked Trout Salad With Candied Kumquats
Hearty Sausage Soup
Firm Polenta
To make the "candy"; that my sister and I loved, use a stainless-steel pot with a copper bottom. After you have removed the cooked polenta, the inside of the pan will be coated with mush. Put it over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes and gently peel the crust that forms away from the sides of the pan. "Only a devoted mother will do this," says mine.
Spinach-Filled Mediterranean Meat Roll
Salad With Herbs And Warm Goat Cheese
Tomatoes Provencal
Tomatoes With Chicken Stuffing
Chicken “Piccata” With Chard or Beet Greens
These pungent, lemony chicken breasts that are among the top 10 dinners in my house. I pound chicken breasts thin, – to about 1/4 inch. This way, you can get a good two servings, if not more, out of each boneless, skinless breast. They take minutes to cook, and you can pound the chicken breasts ahead of time and keep them between sheets of plastic in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make dinner.
Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Mushrooms
In this Provençal rendition of pan-cooked chicken breasts, the mushrooms take on an added dimension of flavor as they deglaze the pan with the help of one of their favorite partners, dry white wine.
Roasted Broccoli With Tahini Garlic Sauce
One of my favorite Middle Eastern mezze is deep-fried cauliflower served with tahini garlic sauce. I decided to try the dish with broccoli, but instead of deep-frying the broccoli I roasted it, a method that requires a lot less oil. The buds on the broccoli florets toast to a crispy brown, and the texture of the stalk remains crisp. It goes wonderfully with the classic and irresistible tahini garlic sauce.
Orange and Radish Salad With Pistachios
Before I put this salad together, I could imagine how it would feel and taste in my mouth: the juicy, sweet oranges playing against the crisp, pungent radishes. The combination was inspired by an orange, radish and carrot salad in Sally Butcher’s charming book “Salmagundi: A Celebration of Salads From Around the World.” The salad is a showcase for citrus, which is in season in California. Navels are particularly good right now, both the regular variety and the darker pink-fleshed Cara Cara oranges that taste like a cross between an orange and a pink grapefruit. I fell in love with blood oranges when I lived in Paris years ago, and although the Moro variety that we get in the United States doesn’t have quite as intense a red-berry flavor as the Mediterranean fruit, its color is hard to resist. Here I use a combination of blood oranges and navels, and a beautiful mix of red and purple radishes and daikon. Dress this bright mixture with roasted pistachio oil, which has a mild nutty flavor that marries beautifully with the citrus. Put the prepared oranges and radishes in separate bowls and use a slotted spoon to remove the orange slices from the juices. Just before serving, arrange the oranges and radishes on a platter or on plates, spoon on the dressing and juices, and sprinkle with pistachios. You can also layer the elements, undressed, and pour on the liquids right before serving. For a juicier version, skip the slotted spoon and toss all of the ingredients together for a quenching salad that is best served in bowls.
Savory Steel-Cut Oats With Fried Egg and Za’atar
Oat porridge for breakfast is often topped with brown sugar and cream. Though sweetened porridge is delicious, a savory approach with oats makes a nice change. Think of oats as a fine substitute for rice — you don’t always want rice pudding, do you? Steel-cut oats have a nutty whole-grain flavor and retain a nubbly texture, far superior to rolled oats; they pair nicely with savory toppings, for a risotto-like effect. This easy, hearty dish is actually suitable for any time of day, not just morning. If you can’t find za’atar (a splendid spice mix of wild thyme, sumac and sesame used throughout the Middle East), try a sprinkling of toasted ground cumin or a pinch of oregano, or a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. It’s hard to cook a single portion of oats, so make the full batch. Leftovers can be reheated for another day’s breakfast. (And if rolled oats is all you have, it’s no crime.)
Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes With Red Pepper Dressing
Zucchini’s inherent versatility is well known. It shows up in pastas, vegetable stews and can even be pickled. In this salad, thinly sliced zucchini is very briefly blanched, then paired with other summery ingredients and served at room temperature. Roast the red pepper yourself or use a quality brand from a jar.
Sautéed Winter Squash With Swiss Chard, Red Quinoa and Aleppo Pepper
Although any winter squash will be delicious, you do have to put some elbow grease into peeling and cutting the squash into small dice (no larger than 1/2 inch, and preferably smaller than that), so I recommend butternut, which is easiest to peel. Delicata, even easier to peel and dice, would be another good choice but you won’t get the bright orange color, which is beautiful against the chopped blanched chard, whose stems lend texture to the dish. Red quinoa – just a sprinkling – makes a great finish, contributing another texture and more color. You can make a meal of the skillet combo if you top it with a poached egg, or you can serve it as a side dish.
Couscous With Zucchini
Couscous With Chickpeas, Spinach and Mint
Spinach and chickpeas are a popular combination throughout the Mediterranean. This is one of my favorite couscous tagines. You can also use sturdier greens like chard. If you do use chard, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes rather than the 5 minutes required for spinach.
Grilled Figs With Pomegranate Molasses
These are wonderful. First you toss them in a mix of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then you grill them on both sides just until they soften and grill marks appear (at which point they are warm all the way through and just beginning to become jammy), then you remove from the grill and brush with pomegranate molasses. It’s a match made in heaven. Serve while the figs are still warm, as a first course with goat cheese, or as a dessert with ricotta or yogurt.
Pasta With Tomatoes, Greens and Ricotta
A ragout is the perfect vehicle for sturdy greens, which stand up to gentle simmering and sweeten as they cook. I usually take a simple Mediterranean approach and simmer the greens with olive oil, tomatoes, onions and garlic. The result is a savory ragout that begs to be tossed with pasta.
Four-Spice Salmon
Fish fillets can be a weeknight cook’s savior. They are healthful and easy to prepare, require little time to cook and take well to all manner of spices. In this straightforward recipe, adapted from the New York chef Katy Sparks, you start with salmon fillets, liberally rub them on one side with a mixture of ground coriander, cloves, cumin and nutmeg, and then brown them in a very hot pan so the spices form a crust. Flip once, and that’s it. For the best results, use fillets of equal sizes, cook them to medium rare, and use freshly ground spices. If you have only pre-ground, be sure they haven’t gone stale sitting in your cabinet too long. (Yes, spices can go stale.)
Minted Yogurt Sauce
Quick-Braised Cod With Herbed Yogurt
In this blissfully easy weeknight dinner, cod and shallots are braised in butter and wine, then topped with an herbed, garlicky yogurt sauce. It’s fast, flavorful and comforting, especially when served with mashed potatoes to drink up the pan juices. You can substitute any other mild-fleshed fish for the cod. Hake, sea bass, flounder and porgy all work nicely, though you may have to adjust the cooking time, depending on the thickness of the fillets.