With The Essential Mediterranean, Nancy Harmon Jenkins continues her
lifelong exploration of Mediterranean food -- how it is grown, prepared,
and shared around the table. In her latest book, Ms. Jenkins introduces
cooks and readers to a cluster of core ingredients and foodways that are
fundamental to all of the Mediterranean's diverse cuisines. She shows
how the Mediterranean attitude toward food -- a combination of respect,
integrity, enthusiasm, and sheer joy -- can be cultivated across the
Atlantic.
In twelve informative and captivating chapters, the author focuses on
the core ingredients common to the diverse cuisines of the region: salt,
wine and vinegar, pasta and couscous, bread, olive oil, Old World
legumes, New World peppers and tomatoes, dairy products, the family pig,
and the resources of the sea. In each chapter she travels to a different
corner of the Inner Sea to describe how and why these essential
ingredients are obtained, what determines their quality, and where they
fit in local cuisines.
Each chapter draws on history and ethnography as much as on the lives of
Mediterranean people today. Readers will delight in Majid Mahjoub, the
colorful Tunisian "Shakespeare of olive oil," and commiserate with
Provencal cheese maker Yves van Weddingen as he struggles to maintain
his standards in the face of bureaucratic demands. Home cooks will
garner a new appreciation of high-quality Spanish jamon de bellota as
they follow the Trigo family through the annual winter ritual of
transforming the family pig into hams and sausages.
More than 170 contemporary, accessible recipes, simple to reproduce at
home, bring the foods and the regions alive, while additional chapters
include basic procedures and staples, as well as a helpful guide to
ingredient sources.
The Essential Mediterranean gets to the heart of this world,
celebrating its diverse food cultures and the shared ingredients that
are the essence of these remarkable cuisines.
