Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a few wonderful Mediterranean cookbooks, and it's my go to region for culinary experiments. As much as I love those books, I really wish I had saved my money and purchased this one first. The sheer mass of information in this book is astonishing. With recipes from all over the region, including North Africa, Greece, Spain and Italy, you will never get bored with it. The book is divided up into the usual sections like soups, poultry, salads, etc. but with some additions like rice and grains, breads, flatbreads, pizzas, etc. The table of contents in each section lists special indicators (little colored squares) after dishes which are either fast (45 minutes or less) or vegetarian. Within each section, the recipes are varied. Each recipe starts with an explanation of why the dish is made the way it is, such as why the potatoes are boiled instead of microwaved, why this dish is blended by hand instead of a food processor, etc. This will save you tons of time when you are thinking of taking a shortcut and find that it doesn't turn out right. Then the recipe shows photos of steps that might be unfamiliar. And then there are little "notes" inserted every few pages which go into a specific ingredient, what to look for, how it's used...things like sardines, pancetta, bay leaves...or else methods, like how to properly wash and dry a salad, or how to salt-soak beans. Many of the recipes also list further variations, such as pan roasted cauliflower...which then shows how to add capers and pine nuts, or spices and pistachios. My only minor complaint is that the nutritional info for each recipe is listed...but it's all listed in an index in the back of the book rather than with each recipe. But don't let that stop you...the fact that it's there at all is one up on most other cook books!