Courgette Fritters with Parmesan Cheese
Grilled Goat’s Cheese and Polenta Salad
Butter-braised Scallops with Fennel Sauce
Foie Gras with an Orange Cream Sauce
Braised Peas with Smoked Sausage and Poached Eggs
Mussels with Garlic Sausage Cooked in a Kettle
Pork Chops with a Sweet Pepper Paste
Gone are the days when the Mediterranean was a far-off land, full of alien inhabitants and even more alien food. Nowadays it’s not unusual for a British pantry to be stocked with extra virgin olive oil, oak-aged balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomato paste. We have all grown up and our palates have acquired a certain sophistication. Thanks to a surge in package tourism and the sudden growth of the restaurant culture, our eyes and appetites have widened to the sights, smells and tastes of Europe.
So, now we know our feta from our fusilli, the next stage is to appreciate the full range of cooking styles and the ease with which they can be recreated at home. Once you’ve tried a few of the recipes in this book, you’ll discover that good food is not as hard to prepare as it looks. In no time your friends will be congratulating you on the tremendous efforts you’ve clearly made at a dinner party. You’ll thank them, saying it was nothing, and only you’ll know what was involved.
In this book I have put together a few of my favourite dishes from Greece, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal. Some will seem familiar, others less so, but all will surprise you in some small way. The biggest shock of all will be how simple it is to achieve excellence. So loosen your belt, broaden your mind and tuck in!
Greece
Greek islands have long served as magnets for summer funseekers in pursuit of glorious sunshine, crumbling old columns and ancient Greek tragedies – and I don’t mean the food. The damage done to Greece’s culinary reputation by the greasy kebabs sold from vans and takeaways across Britain almost exceeds the bloodshed at the fall of Troy. Greek food, in truth, is excellent – loads of fresh fruit and vegetables, a fantastic variety of fish and shellfish, lamb, pork, goat and chicken. The horror stories of overcooked Greek food, left to go cold and swimming in oil, are simply unfair. One belief that we do have to suspend, however, is that good food should be piping hot. Greek cooks choose to serve dishes tepid, firmly believing that hot food is bad for the soul – or at least the digestion. And there is no doubt that flavours are indistinguishable at a searing 30°C. If you want to savour aubergines, lamb and cheese cooked in the traditional manner, then lukewarm moussaka – trust me – is a must.
The thing I love about Greek tavernas is their eagerness to welcome anyone into the kitchen to have a look at what’s going on. I always have a good old nose around the pots to see what’s cooking before deciding what to eat. This is definitely the best way of acquainting yourself with local dishes. The menu in most tavernas bears absolutely no relation to the dishes they cook. This is because they collect standard menu cards palmed off on them by big wine merchants who have something to promote. If you really want to taste the speciality of the house, toss the menu away and ask the proprietor, ‘What’s good today?’ I don’t know about you but I’m the first to hit the phrasebook, and I’ve learned this line off by heart.
Spain
Food is approached with much gusto in Spain. Meals tend to be family affairs, big shared production numbers, prepared lovingly and enjoyed slowly. Cooks go for freshness rather than complexity, and stick to local ingredients, which is why regional cooking still thrives. From the deserted uplands of Almería to the leafy Asturias, the country spans such a huge variety of landscapes that it’s no wonder the cuisine is so wide-ranging. Anyone who thinks Spain stops at the suntraps of the costas should try a wet weekend in Galicia, where they would find themselves swapping chilled gazpacho and olive oil for warming wild boar and pork fat.
To taste Spain’s unique combination of wholesome rusticity and Old World exotica, your best bet would be to gatecrash a family paella. Originally a peasant dish, paella, named after the wide shallow vessel in which it is cooked, has remained a favourite for centuries. Ingredients are all there on the doorstep – fresh fish and seafood, chicken, succulent peppers, saffron and, of course, rice. Rice is the most widely planted cereal in the world but it is not exactly native to Spain. It first turned up in the Iberian Peninsula courtesy of the Moors in the 8th century and has been growing prolifically in the provinces of Valencia and Andalucía ever since. Valencian mothers first cooked paella for their families on Sundays and since then it has elbowed its way into the repertoires of professional