Mediterranean food is the home cooking of many local cultures, a way of cooking derived from generous people, rustic foods, and simple pleasures. Its clear, robust flavors and uncomplicated preparations have made it a favorite of Americans and have earned it an honored place in our culinary tradition.
What makes Mediterranean vegetable cookery so wonderful is the way its ingredients have been combined to create a host of delicious dishes virtually unknown until now in American kitchens. Vegetables are high on the list of foods we all want to eat more of, and we’re always looking for new ways to prepare them.
With Mediterranean Vegetables, a masterful A–to–Z culinary reference and cookbook, Mediterranean food expert Clifford A. Wright gives us a new world of great tastes. Never before has such a wealth of information on vegetables of the Mediterranean been collected in one place.
Each entry describes a vegetable and its varieties, explains its origins and its culinary history from ancient times right up through the present, and details how to grow and harvest is and where to buy it. Included are many vegetables that you may use every day, such as spinach, carrots, peppers, and tomatoes, as well as those you regularly see in markets but are unsure how to prepare, such as celeriac, kohlrabi, and taro. There are also those that you can easily cultivate in your garden or find growing wild, such as borage and garden cress.
The countries that border the Mediterranean Sea are exotic and diverse, as is their multitude of vegetable preparations. These 200 recipes, incorporated into appropriate entries, tell stories about the people who created them and the cultures from which they were born. Such a connection between food and history makes cooking, and eating, even more satisfying. Here you will find authentic recipes for such classics as ratatouille, gazpacho, and tabbouleh, as well as recipes for less familiar, but no less delicious, dishes including Artichoke Hearts in Citrus Sauce and Golden Breadcrumbs, Fried Eggplant with Yogurt, Étouffée of White Beans, Carrot Frittata, and more.
Comprehensive and eminently accessible, Mediterranean Vegetables is for anyone who wants to read about, grow, cook with, and eat vegetables. It is, quite simply, a must-have reference and cookbook.
From the publisher
Clifford A. Wright is a cook, food writer, and research scholar specializing in the cuisines of the Mediterranean. He is the author of ten cookbooks, including A Mediterranean Feast, the winner of the James Beard/KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year and Best Writing on Food awards and nominee for the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Cookbook of the Year in 2000. The New York Times has recognized Wright as one of the most innovative cooks in America in its “Cooks on the Map” series and praised him for his style of emphasizing regional Mediterranean home cooking with its historical background. He writes frequently for Saveur, Fine Cooking, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and Food & Wine. He also wrote all food entries for Columbia University’s Encyclopedia of Modern Middle East.
In addition to his food writing, Wright has been featured on numerous television shows including the Food Network’s Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, PBS’s Cook’s Tour, the Discovery Channel’s Home Matters, and over 40 radio programs.
Wright’s scholarly approach to food writing is rooted in his successful career in the field of international affairs, beginning as a researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, then as a staff fellow at the Institute of Arab Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and finally as the Executive Director of the American Middle East Peace Research Institute. Wright received his Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York. He was a doctoral candidate at the New School for Social Research and at Georgetown University.
Wright has lived in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, and now resides in Santa Monica, California.
You can visit his website at cliffordawright.com.
About the author
Clifford A. Wright won the James Beard/KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year award and the James Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food in 2000 for A Mediterranean Feast (William Morrow), which was also a finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Cookbook of the Year award that same year. He is the author of fourteen books, twelve of which are cookbooks. Wright's articles on food and cuisine have appeared in Gourmet, Bon App\u00e9tit, Food & Wine, Saveur, and other magazines. He is a contributing editor to ZesterDaily.com. As an independent researcher, Wright wrote the food entries for Columbia University's Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and has published scholarly articles on food in peer-reviewed journals such as Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, Food and Foodways, and Gastronomica. Wright has also lectured on food at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Boston University, Georgetown University, Davidson College in North Carolina, Loyola Marymount University, South Dakota State University, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Culinary Institute of America, among other institutions. As a cooking teacher, he has taught cooking classes at the Central Market cooking schools in Texas, the Rhode Island School of Design, Institute for Culinary Education in New York, Sur la Table, and other cooking schools around the United States. His website www.CliffordAWright.com is one of the most-visited sites for people interested in Mediterranean foods. In 2009 he launched the Venice Cooking School (www.VeniceCookingSchool.com) with Martha Rose Shulman in Los Angeles, California. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
