Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too: Eating to Be Sexy, Fit, and Fabulous! (5 page)

If you are used to bland, overly salted, processed food, canned vegetables and fruit, or only a few basic tastes in your everyday eating, then you are in for a treat! You won’t believe healthy eating can be this seductive.

The more you sample and savor flavors you’ve never tried before and taste combinations that are new to you, the more your palate will learn to get excited by new sensations. If your
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palate is used to potato chips or processed “diet” foods, well . . .

maybe it’s time to broaden your palate’s experience.

I was lucky enough to start eating high-flavor food as a child, but some of you may not be used to this kind of eating.

You might wrinkle your nose at the strong smell of garlic or the concentrated tang of sun-dried tomatoes. Or maybe you think these tastes are thrilling, or hope they will be. Now is the time to start discovering, testing, and challenging your own palate.

In this chapter, we will look at and taste some of the most basic flavors of Mediterranean cuisine. This is way beyond salt and pepper, mayonnaise and ketchup, my friends. This is garlic and lemon, parsley and mint, tart yogurt and sweet balsamic vinegar, toasted coriander and cumin. This is flavor.

The cooking part won’t be difficult at all. If you aren’t used to cooking much beyond your microwave, don’t worry. I may be a chef, but I know how it is to be crunched for time, hungry, and standing in the middle of your kitchen without fancy equipment and gourmet ingredients. We’ll start with some very simple recipes to introduce your palate to new flavors. And we’ll talk about the best ways to get the most out of your meal so that you learn not only what to taste but how to taste.

As we venture forth into a world of new, powerful, vibrant, exciting tastes, we will first experiment with a few very basic tastes characteristic of Mediterranean cuisine, highlighted in a few simple recipes. These aren’t meals. These little dishes make excellent bites to experiment with on your One-Day, Three-Step Pleasure-Eating Meditation because you can be assured of high flavor with a Mediterranean character.

I will suggest some simple ways you can use these tastes to add excitement to the foods you probably eat every day: chicken, pasta, tuna, salad, bread. Chicken soup sprinkled with gremolata is fresher, brighter, and more intense than plain chicken soup. A bowl of pasta tossed with red pesto is much
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more interesting than pasta with canned tomato sauce, and a thin slice of toasted baguette tastes a lot better with buttery roasted garlic spread across it than plain butter. Are you ready to taste with me? Let’s get into the kitchen.

Garlic

Remember my thermos of bean and escarole soup? That soup was redolent with rich, aromatic garlic. Garlic is one of the most ancient vegetables on the planet, and many cuisines all over the globe use it as an integral flavoring component. Garlic can taste pungent and eye-wateringly strong or mellow, rich, and heady with flavor—it all depends on what you do with it. Raw garlic can be spicy. It has a little zing with a light sauté. Cooked golden brown, it has a toasted, earthy flavor, slow-roasted, it becomes sweet and mellow with a velvety texture. Rub a clove on a toasted crostini and the crumb of the bread will grate the garlic into the crevices.

When your palate gets used to the taste of garlic, you can begin to recognize its presence in many different dishes. Garlic is one of the key tastes in Mediterranean cuisine. Even in ancient Rome, people thought garlic had healing powers and used it therapeutically for everything from treating topical infections as an antiseptic to curing asthma. They were right. Raw garlic can kill bacteria, fungus, yeast, and when it is cooked, it has a blood-thinning effect that can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and even open up clogged arteries. It also contains a host of phytochemicals that may have a potent anticancer effect.

But garlic’s stellar qualities aside, it has a most wonderful taste and aroma, which is probably why it is a common ingredient in many classic Mediterranean dishes, from soups and stews to braises, sauces, marinades, and salad dressings. When you
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cook garlic the right way, it tastes buttery and flavorful but mellow—you might not believe it’s garlic. I’m going to show you how to enjoy garlic in this wonderful way, and it could hardly be simpler.

Tasting roasted garlic on bread will help your palate memo-rize garlic’s flavor so that you can recognize it and feel more confident using it in your own cooking. You may never want to put butter on your bread again. Spread it on slices of baguette with a little cheese, then broil for a few minutes to make luscious garlic-cheese bread. Try it on crackers, cucumber slices, or thin slices of Roma tomatoes. Or use it on a sandwich for a quick and flavorful lunch. Try this simple recipe: Spread roasted garlic on a slice of bread, then top with a freshly sliced tomato. Sprinkle on freshly chopped basil, a teaspoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and freshly ground black pepper.

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and

tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it

Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek.

Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it

good.

—Alice May Brock, writer

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Roasted Garlic

S e r v e s 4

√Choose a bulb of garlic that looks plump and large, with firm cloves. If it feels soft or has green sprouts, the garlic is old and no good. A mild Spanish olive oil is good for this recipe, but any quality extra-virgin olive oil will work.

1 garlic bulb (not just a clove)

8 thin baguette slices, or 4 Italian

1–2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

bread slices

1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Slice off just the top quarter inch of the garlic bulb, exposing the tops of all the cloves.

2.
Set the garlic cut side up in a pie plate and drizzle with olive oil, making sure you get some oil on all the garlic cloves. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let the garlic cool just enough that you can handle it.

3.
Toast the slices of bread. Squeeze the garlic paste from the cloves (the soft garlic paste should slip easily from the skins), or scoop it out with a small spoon, and spread it on the toast.

Slowly savor the taste of garlic the way it is meant to be eaten.

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Agrodolce

Agrodolce
means “sour-sweet,” and this is a classic taste combination in Mediterranean food. Many vegetables can be prepared agrodulce. Fish also tastes good this way. The sour usually comes from vinegar or lemon juice, while the sweet may be from balsamic vinegar, currants, raisins, honey, or sugar. This taste combination may be foreign to you, but try this classic Mediterranean preparation to introduce your palate to this essential taste experience. Cooking vegetables this way might just help you eat more of them. You can snack on them at room temperature or even straight out of the refrigerator if you don’t have time to warm them up.

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Cipollini Agrodolce

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√Cipollini onions are Italian baby onions, but you can substitute any small onion in this dish, such as pearl onions; or use sweet Vidalia onions if they are freshly available, and slice them thinly.

You want mild, sweet onions for this dish rather than big pungent onions. If you don’t have access to onions, you can try this dish with another mild vegetable such as eggplant, peeled and cut into small cubes, or even zucchini. Use whatever is freshest.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

1 cup peeled and sliced Cipolline or

or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

other small, sweet onions

1 bay leaf

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 cinnamon sticks, or 1⁄4 teaspoon

Freshly ground black pepper

ground cinnamon

to taste

1⁄2 teaspoon sherry vinegar or other

1 tablespoon honey

good-quality wine vinegar

1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat the olive oil in a medium ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat. When you can smell the oil (after about 2 minutes), add the onions. Sear the onions, stirring constantly.

2.
When the onions turn soft and brown and start to caramelize, add the salt, pepper, and honey. Toss to coat. Continue to cook and stir for about 3 more minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

3.
Stir in the thyme, bay leaf, and cinnamon. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the onion mixture for 10 minutes.

4.
Stir in the vinegar. Remove the bay leaf and cinnamon sticks, and serve warm or at room temperature.

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Olives

Olive trees decorate the Mediterranean. Their fruit is absolutely essential to Mediterranean cuisine. Since ancient times, people have kept great vats of olive oil. It’s a key component in Mediterranean cuisine and the source of most of the fat in the Mediterranean diet. This kind of fat is good for your heart. I’ve devoted a whole chapter to olive oil (chapter 4). But for now, let’s consider the humble olive itself and its distinctive taste.

One recipe I really enjoy is tapenade. This is a spreadable black olive paste uniquely flavored with tangy capers and salty anchovies. Don’t be afraid to use anchovies—they are a key taste component of tapenade and are a frequent flavoring in many Mediterranean dishes. Most grocery stores carry them.

Anchovies aren’t obvious in many recipes, and if you didn’t know the recipe included anchovies, you probably wouldn’t be able to guess by the taste. But they do add that
je ne sais quoi.

Tapenade tastes good on toasted or grilled slices of bread, crackers, or even as a sandwich spread. Try it as an interesting alternative the next time you feel like enjoying a tuna salad sandwich. Tapenade is so rich and flavorful that you only need a little to feel satisfied.

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Tapenade

M a k e s a b o u t 2 1/2 c u p s

√Tapenade should be slightly chunky, not a completely smooth paste. You should be able to see grain-sized bits of olives, but the mixture should be easily spreadable. Pitting the olives isn’t hard—you can almost consider it a meditative act. Whack each olive with the side of a chef’s knife, then just pop out the pit with your fingers by squeezing the olive. For a nuttier flavor, try this with Sicilian green olives or fleshy Greek olives.

2 cups pitted kalamata olives

1⁄4 cup fresh basil leaves, or more

11⁄2 tablespoons chopped garlic,

if needed

or a little more if needed

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, or a

3 tablespoons capers

little more if needed

4 fresh or canned anchovy fillets,

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon

rinsed and patted dry

juice, or more if needed

1.
Puree all the ingredients together in a food processor until combined but still textured. If the tapenade is too stiff or not spreadable, stir in a little more olive oil.

2.
Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more garlic, basil, or lemon juice if necessary, or even a pinch of sea salt. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Parsley-Garlic-Citrus and Other Herb-Spice Combos

In Mediterranean cooking, certain herb and spice combinations give foods a classic taste profile. Italy, France, Spain, Greece, North Africa—each has its distinctive taste combinations, and learning what these are will help you make basic food more interesting and any food more exotic and Mediterranean in taste.

Mediterranean herb-spice combinations are typically so vibrant and forward in their tastes that they are a great way to help you eat less and enjoy your food more. They make every bite more delightful.

To capture the flavor of different Mediterranean countries, just add the right herb-spice-condiment combo. Here’s what to add to your favorite dish of pasta or bland piece of chicken or fish to give it Mediterranean flair:

• For Moroccan flavor, try cinnamon, walnuts, raisins, cloves

• For French flavor, try the herb blend called herbes de Provence, which includes marjoram, thyme, savory, basil, rosemary, sage, lavender, and a little fennel seed

• For Spanish flavor, try saffron, white onion, sage, rosemary, smoked or hot paprika

• For Italian flavor, try oregano, basil, thyme, olives, capers, sweet peppers, garlic, tomatoes, dried pepperoncini

• For Greek flavor, add lemon, feta cheese, olives, capers, or mint, honey, yogurt, oregano

• For Tunisian flavor, try harissa (a spicy condiment made with hot chile peppers) and curry

• For North African flavor, add paprika, garlic, ginger, chiles, raisins, sweet potatoes, cumin, coriander, dried ground rose petals
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Many combinations contain fresh parsley—the flat-leaf kind marked “Italian parsley” at the market. Often combined with citrus rind and garlic, parsley can be cooked into dishes or chopped and sprinkled raw over the top of meat, fish, or vegetables. One of the classic ways to use parsley in Mediterranean cooking is in gremolata, an Italian flavoring mixture that is usually sprinkled over cooked food right before serving, adding a bright, fresh taste and making bland food more exciting. Typically a mixture of chopped parsley, garlic, and lemon rind, gremolata is the traditional garnish for osso buco, the delicious veal shank stew that is itself an Italian classic.