Flavours of the Mediterranean

By Olivier Baussan and Jean-Marie Meulien

The food pyramid, for decades a pillar of American nutrition, has been shoved aside in favor of the Mediterranean diet, by many dieticians and physicians celebrated to be the healthiest diet in the world. It's all about the olive oil, about whole grains, some dairy (think Greek yogurt) and drinking a glass of wine with your meal.

Olive oil can actually lower harmful LDL cholesterol and in Mediterranean countries there are much fewer deaths of heart disease; but even if you don't care about the healthful aspects of food and simply want to indulge, Mediterranean flavors, from Nice and Barcelona to Athens and Naples, are deliciously inventive. Olive oil specialist Olivier Baussan and chef Jean-Marie Meulien have written a gorgeously illustrated book with recipes using olive oil to create meze, tapas, antipasti and tasty main courses like confit of rabbit thighs with fennel and garlic. Try the baked fennel with saffron, gratin of Swiss chard on a chestnut cake or the sweet tomato pie. For dessert there's figs in orange wine with Verbena granita; or apple and red currant crumble with lavender flowers.

Some of the ingredients might be a little hard to come by such as quail eggs, putargue, Ligurian asparagus or chestnut flour. But we trust that as a true foodie you're pretty inventive. Also, as a consolation, at least you do not have to figure out what wine to pair with these rustic flavors. Each dish has a fine suggestion at them bottom of the page.

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