Flavours of the Med: our best-ever recipes
Sunshine food
Conjure up a slice of the Med in your kitchen with our vibrant recipe collection. The stunning salads and sides, meaty mains, fabulous fish and veggie meals are brimming with bright flavours that'll remind you of sun-soaked days in warmer climes. Remember, the key to a lot of Mediterranean cooking is top-quality ingredients that shine in simple dishes, so use the best produce you can.
One-pot baked lamb orzo
This tasty Greek-influenced one-pan dish is ready in just over an hour. Chunks of tender lamb rump are marinated in lemon, garlic and herbs, then gently baked with tomatoes, spices and orzo – a small rice-shaped pasta. The dish is finished with olives, feta and spinach. It's worth allowing an extra hour or so to marinate the lamb first for maximum flavour.
Lemon and herb chicken with celeriac remoulade
Celeriac has a mild, celery-like flavour with a hint of nuttiness. It makes a great mash in place of potato, but it's very tasty raw, like here in a classic French salad with mayonnaise and grain mustard. Served with chicken breasts marinated in fresh herbs and lemon, then chargrilled, it's an easy midweek meal with bags of flavour.
Get the recipe for lemon and herb chicken with celeriac remoulade here
Paella
Paella is a convivial dish, perfect for a gathering. The ingredients, whether fish, shellfish or chicken and more, vary from town to town, from family to family. Our recipe is predominately seafood-based but also includes the controversial addition of chorizo. If you can, use a proper wide, shallow paella pan – it will taste even better. Always have hot stock to hand in case it begins to dry out.
Beetroot, orange and fennel salad
This dish has everything you want in a great salad – earthy roasted beetroot, slices of fresh orange, the aniseed taste of fennel, crunchy pistachios and a sharp and sweet orange and honey dressing. If using red beetroot, do wear kitchen gloves to peel them. Make this into a main meal by crumbling over some feta or chunks of fried halloumi.
Lamb kofte with parsley salad
These small deep-fried lamb meatballs are little pockets of flavour, with herbs, spices, nuts and chilli. They also contain bulgur wheat, a whole-grain which is softened in boiling water, though you could use quinoa or couscous instead. The vibrant salad which accompanies them must be made with flat-leaf or Italian parsley, not the curly variety, and needs to be very finely chopped.
Hake, samphire and tomato salad
Vibrant green samphire tastes like young asparagus (which you could use with a teaspoon of capers in place of the samphire). It needs to be blanched first, before using it in this colourful salad, where meaty hake (or use cod) is baked with white wine, olive oil, fresh herbs and lemon, served with ripe tomatoes and the pan juices from the fish. It just needs chunks of crusty bread on the side to mop up the buttery sauce.
Roast peppers with burrata
Transport yourself to southern Italy with this simple, yet flavour-packed dish. Red peppers are roasted with 'nduja, a fiery hot sausage paste from Calabria. Once cooked, they are served with cold creamy burrata which melts into the juices from the peppers and sausage. All that's required is some ciabatta for mopping up.
Courgette, pea and broad bean tortilla
A tortilla is essentially a Spanish omelette. The additions can vary but it always contains slices of cooked potato which make it an easy and filling meal. You can even use frozen vegetables when fresh aren't in season, or use up bits and bobs from the fridge.
Get the recipe for courgette, pea and broad bean tortilla here
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Lentil ratatouille
Ratatouille is a vegetable stew from the south of France, with tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, garlic and onions. Recipes vary across the region – some contain celery, others pitted black olives. In this version, lentils are added to the vegetables to make a substantial and speedy veggie main dish, scattered with fresh basil for fragrance and flavour.
Tomato galette
There's no fiddly lining of tins or blind baking required for this simple free-form vegetable tart. Tomatoes, courgettes, tarragon and sautéed onions are piled up over a layer of grated cheese, then the pastry is simply folded around the edges. If you can't find tarragon, basil, oregano or rosemary would work, although the tarragon does add a lovely aniseed note.
Moussaka
In its Greek and Cypriot homelands, moussaka is often made with minced pork, rather than lamb. In this recipe, feel free to use beef, pork or lamb, or a mixture, plus extra flavour and texture is added by roasting the aubergines and potatoes first. The meat sauce does take time, but it's predominantly hands-off, as the hob does the hard work to give a rich, reduced sauce. A layer of grated cheese on top adds more savoury notes and a crisp topping.
Salade Niçoise
A great Niçoise just epitomises sunshine in the south of France, with its vibrant colours and favourite Mediterranean flavours. The key is in the quality of the ingredients, so use top-notch tuna, ripe, sweet tomatoes and olives preserved in oil, not brine – otherwise they can be overpoweringly salty. To make it more substantial, add cooked small new potatoes.
Slow-roasted peppers with chilli, garlic and beans
This is a twist on a southern Italian recipe called peperonata, where peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes are slow-cooked to make a rich, jammy dish. Here it's made in the oven, with the addition of cannellini beans. It tastes better the day after it's made and any leftovers make a good pasta sauce with tagliatelle. Add a spoonful of the pasta cooking water to loosen it and make the sauce stick to the pasta.
Get the recipe for slow-roasted peppers with chilli, garlic and beans here
Watermelon, feta and bread salad
Watermelon and feta are a great combination – the sweetness of the melon contrasting with the saltiness of the feta. In this Greek salad, baked croutons and pumpkin seeds give extra crunch and the feta is lightly grilled until just softened. Grilled or fried halloumi would also work well.
Spicy chicken gyros
Gyros make a perfect healthy sandwich for lunch or dinner. Spiced, herby marinated and grilled chicken chunks are stuffed into warm pittas with crunchy lettuce, tomato salsa and a cooling mint and cucumber yogurt sauce. Just add a squeeze of lemon to serve.
Slow-cooked lamb shank with braised vegetables
Lamb shanks require long, slow cooking until they are fall-off-the-bone tender. In this easy one-pot dish, they are oven-baked with diced vegetables, herbs and garlic in red wine and ruby port to create a rich, silky sauce. If you don't have port, use the same amount of Malvasia Madeira or a full-bodied red wine such as a Shiraz.
Get the recipe for slow-cooked lamb shank with braised vegetables here
Runner bean and tomato casserole
Here's a dish for olive oil-lovers. This simple Greek runner bean casserole is called a ladero which means it's olive oil-based. The stew is sprinkled with a crunchy feta, pistachio and breadcrumb topping and served with carrot purée and olive oil mash. It makes the perfect accompaniment to grilled lamb chops, steak or fish.
Greek meatballs
Meatballs with a Mediterranean twist: spiced with cinnamon, cumin, garlic and paprika, and served in a thick, garlicky tomato sauce. They are made with a mixture of minced pork and lamb, although you could use beef. Serve stuffed into warm pitta or with a small pasta shape such as orzo.
Spinach and ricotta pie
This tasty filo pie is a bigger version of a Greek spanakopita, small triangles of filled filo pastry. Ricotta on its own is quite bland, but the addition of feta lifts the flavour. Do season the filling well and if you're not used to dealing with sheets of filo pastry, keep them under a damp cloth as you build up and butter each sheet, to prevent them cracking at the edges.
Socca with artichokes
Socca is a chickpea-flour pancake often served at street stalls as a snack in Provence. You'll also find a similar dish in neighbouring Liguria, Italy, where it's called farinata. Our version contains fresh baby artichokes, but when they are out of season, you could add some caramelised onions instead.
Tapenade
Tapenade is a black olive paste from Provence in the south of France. It's just black olives, whizzed up in the food processor with olive oil, garlic, capers and lemon, although you could add two anchovies to our recipe for extra flavour. It's traditionally spread on to little toasts, but we suggest stuffing it under chicken skin for a tasty roast, or on to the fat of a rack of lamb to make a lovely crust.
Lamb-stuffed aubergines
Roasted aubergines stuffed with a rich spiced lamb ragù are popular across the southern Mediterranean. Our recipe has a distinctly Spanish vibe, with smoked paprika added to the sauce and the dish topped with grated manchego, a semi-hard sheep's cheese, although Gruyère or mature Cheddar work equally well.
Margherita pizza
Naples is the home of this favourite pizza, with its simple topping of tomato, mozzarella and basil, to reflect the Italian flag. Replicate the heat from a pizza oven by cooking it in a frying pan, before finishing it off under the grill. The recipe asks for fresh yeast, but you can substitute it with half a teaspoon of instant yeast.
Grilled sardines with salsa verde
It's hard to beat a spankingly fresh sardine when they're in season, and served with salsa verde – a green sauce – it's a winning combination. This herby, sharp, mustardy sauce, made with olive oil, is really good with any oily fish, as its sharpness cuts through the richness. It's equally good served with any cut of roast or grilled lamb too.
Cherry tomato and rosemary focaccia
This soft, spongy bread with its little pools of olive oil originates from Liguria in Italy, just across the French border from Nice. It's a relatively easy bread to make, perfect dipped into olive oil or served with cheese. The dough is initially quite sticky, but keep working it rather than adding more flour, which will make it tough.
Italian roast chicken with rosemary potatoes
It looks good, it tastes good, and it's so simple to prepare. Chicken breasts are stuffed with mozzarella and basil, then wrapped in Parma Ham and baked in the oven. Have a go, too, at the tasty sautéed potatoes with garlic and fresh rosemary. It's all ready and on the table within an hour.
Get the recipe for Italian roast chicken with rosemary potatoes here
Tomato tart with goats' cheese
This pretty puff pastry tart is a winning combination of sweet fresh and sun-dried tomatoes and melted soft, salty goats' cheese, brought together with a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs. If goats' cheese isn't your thing, try feta or even slices of Camembert. Simply serve with a green salad.
Gazpacho
This chilled Spanish tomato soup truly is summer in a bowl. You need really ripe tomatoes, good extra-virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar for the most delicious flavour. It's best made in a blender, to give a smoother soup, and it's better served ice cold the day after making it, so the flavours can blend. Garnish with croutons, diced peppers, cucumber and black olives.
Beef stifado
This classic Greek beef stew needs to be marinated in red wine, orange and spices overnight, but it's well worth the effort. The result is super-tender meat and sweet pickling onions, all in a rich thick sauce. To peel the tiny onions, blanch them in boiling water first to make the job easier. Serve with rice or small pasta shapes.
Moules marinière
Along the southern French coast, restaurants serve bucket-loads of this classic dish – mussels cooked in white wine with garlic, parsley and a little cream. It's very easy to create it at home in just 25 minutes. Serve with crusty baguettes to mop up the sauce.
Pissaladière
Here's the southern French version of pizza, with not a tomato in sight. The topping is made up of caramelised onions (which need long, slow cooking to bring out their sweetness), anchovy fillets and pitted black olives. Our recipe uses puff pastry instead of the traditional bread base, but you could easily use a shop-bought bread mix to make it.
Spanakopita with chard and leeks
This Greek filo pie is usually filled with ricotta, feta and spinach. But in this recipe, chard and leeks replace the spinach to give a more intense flavour. Do add the dried mint to the mixture if you can – it's very different to fresh, with a stronger, more pronounced taste. However, use it sparingly so it doesn't overpower.
Fougasse with olives and courgettes
Fougasse is the southern French cousin to Italian focaccia, although it contains less olive oil and has a denser texture and a slightly more chewy crust. It's traditionally shaped like an ear of wheat. Our recipe adds olives and courgettes, and we think chopped anchovies and chopped fresh rosemary would be tasty too.
Roast leg of lamb with garlic and lavender
Provence in the south of France is famous for its lavender fields and the French love their lamb with plenty of roasted garlic, so why not combine the two? The lamb is marinated overnight in the garlic and lavender before being studded with more garlic and roasted. Adding a dash of water to the roasting tin towards the end of cooking gives a wonderful sauce, a good tip with any roast.
Get the recipe for roast leg of lamb with garlic and lavender here
Greek salad
A good Greek salad contains all the right ingredients to make it sweet, salty, sharp and crunchy. It's all down to quality – the best extra-virgin olive oil, great feta (try to hunt out barrel-aged feta), juicy black olives and the ripest, sweetest tomatoes you can find.
Bruschetta with tomatoes and mozzarella
Bruschetta are little toasts with toppings, served in Italy with drinks before the main course. It's a simple idea, barely a recipe really, but the key is in the quality of the ingredients. You want good sourdough or country bread, ripe tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, perhaps some black olives and fresh basil.
Get the recipe for bruschetta with tomatoes and mozzarella here
Bouillabaisse
This fragrant and hearty fish stew, with its tomato and fennel base, is the signature dish of Marseille in the south of France. Once the base is ready, add your choice of fish and shellfish, according to what's in season and what you prefer. Ideally, use a meaty white fish, some squid and shellfish such as mussels or clams.
Panzanella
A rustic Italian salad with humble origins, panzanella was created to use up stale bread, mixed with local and cheap ingredients. That doesn't alter the fact that it's a real crowd-pleaser, with crunchy chunks of bread, ripe tomatoes, onions and olives, all dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Chicken souvlaki with couscous salad
Allow an hour to marinate chunks of chicken breast in olive oil, herbs and lemon for this Greek kebab-style dish. Once all the flavour has soaked in, the souvlaki are quick and simple to make, and are served with a lovely couscous salad of fresh herbs and feta. A bowl of tzatziki on the side is essential.
Get the recipe for chicken souvlaki with couscous salad here
Pappardelle with cod and cherry tomatoes
A very simple, summery and light pasta dish, with flakes of cod, ripe tomatoes, garlic and white wine. The Italians love to add a touch of chilli to their fish dishes, not to overpower but to bring out the flavour of the fish. Adding a little of the starchy pasta cooking water to the sauce will help it stick to the pappardelle, rather than it separating.
Get the recipe for pappardelle with cod and cherry tomatoes here
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