Claudia Roden's Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking

150 Refreshingly Simple Vegetarian and Seafood Recipes.

Mediterranean food is exuberant and colourful, with both delicate and explosive flavours. With its vast range of meatless dishes, it is fresh, light, warm-weather food, without the formality, richness and heaviness of northern cooking. It symbolises the essential joie de vivre of the Mediterranean lifestyle. In her 'Invitation To Mediterranean Cooking', Claudia Roden vividly communicates the pleasure of cooking and eating the Mediterranean way.

The book is a collection of 150 favourite recipes - for example, Tunisian Grilled Mixed Salad, Sicilian Pasta with Artichokes, Spanish Mushroom Soup with Almond and Garlic Picada, Greek Squid in Wine Sauce, to name but a few. They have been collected in the course of extensive travels in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and the Lebanon.

The tantalising recipes are divided into chapters on Salads and Appetisers; Soups; Pies and Tarts; Pasta; Bulgar; Rice and Couscous; Mixed Vegetable Dishes; Omelettes and Egg Dishes; Flans, Gratins and Cheese bakes; Vegetable Side Dishes; Fish and Seafood, and Desserts, each chapter having been given an evocative pre-amble.

Only those dishes that Claudia has enjoyed most, and that have proved the most popular with her family and friends, merit inclusion. Some are classics, others are recently discovered regional dishes, but all are totally authentic - and delicious to boot.