Claudia Roden - Med: A Cookbook

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First published by Ebury Press in 2021

Text Claudia Roden 2021
Photography Susan Bell 2021
Except where otherwise credited (see )
Cover illustration David Cass 2021

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Design by Dave Brown Ape Inc. Ltd
Photography: Susan Bell, except where otherwise credited (see )
Food and prop styling: Frankie Unsworth

ISBN: 978-1-473-58602-4

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I thank the friends who came to dinner over the years and helped me choose the recipes that went into this book. My family have always been regulars at my table, and in the final months before handing in the manuscript, my children and grandchildren offered to test recipes. Everyone took to cooking passionately. Their names are in my dedication. Thank you all for your feedback and enthusiasm. You have helped make the book what it is.

My warmest thanks go to the friends far away who offered to test recipes. I appreciated their checking and comments hugely. The writer Adina Hoffman in New Haven, Connecticut, whom I got to know at Yale, also gave an American perspective. I often turned to her and her husband the poet Peter Cole for general advice. Jonah Freud, who is translating Med into Dutch and is the owner of the best cookbook shop in Amsterdam, tested while on a canal journey in France. She is a fantastic cook and food writer, as well as a fount of culinary knowledge for chefs and food writers who come to her for advice. Gabrielle Sachs, who is married to my cousin Dov and lives in Bordeaux, is a cardiology nurse renowned for her cooking and the most passionate home cook I know. She brought a French lens to the recipes and was my super tester. I could hardly keep up with her requests for more recipes to try and waited for her comments and suggestions, hoping for a dlicieux! Dov a ador.

I am more grateful than I can say to my agent Lizzy Kremer for her warm friendship and unstinting support over many years, and for her encouragement, advice and championing of this book. Thank you also for testing recipes Lizzy; your comments were a great help. Working with you is a huge privilege and a joy. I thank Maddalena Cavaciuti, Lizzys assistant at David Higham, for testing too. I valued her Italian know-how.

I am thrilled and delighted with the beautiful book Ebury has produced and thank Andrew Goodfellow, Lizzy Gray, Laura Higginson and Celia Palazzo for wanting to make it the best it could be. I feel lucky and grateful to be published by you. I have special thanks for Andrew for the title, and for Celia, my editor, for making it all happen and for bringing together the dream team that created it. I have many thanks too for Emily Brickell, who took over when Celia left to have her baby.

I am full of admiration and especially grateful to Emily Preece-Morrison, the indefatigable editor and project manager, for her care and dedication, for the brilliant way she captured the spirit of the book, inspired the creative team and got it all to work. I thank the copy editor Maggie Ramsay for her eagle eye and attention to detail; Frankie Unsworth, the amazing food and props stylist, for creating the feel of the Mediterranean for the shoots and to her assistant Izy Hossack for the cooking.

I love Susan Bells lyrical photography. She has a magic touch. Her photos of food are both simple and seductive and make you want to cook. Her seascapes and scenery are moving and make you happy even if you cannot go there. I love Dave Browns engaging design and the way he used the sea and landscape and enmeshed the beautiful photos from all over the Mediterranean, some of them his own, in a poetic net. Thank you Susan and Dave for turning the book into a work of art.

I have many thanks too for the Ebury team who worked on the production, sales and marketing of Med: Lucy Harrison, Stephenie Naulls, Claire Scott, Antony De Rienzo and Fiona Atkinson; and for Vanessa Forbes and Anjali Nathani for deftly handling the foreign editions, Anjali also for setting up the Frankfurt Book Fair meeting.

As I cooked through Med, I thought affectionately of people I got to know in different countries while researching their food, especially those who cooked for me, taught me and showed me around. They allowed me into their lives and came into mine. I am still in touch with many we call, visit and stay. I am forever grateful to them for enriching my life with so much more than recipes.

All photography by Susan Bell, except where credited below:

pp. Getty/iStock

The page references in this index correspond to the print edition from which this ebook was created, and clicking on them will take you to the location in the ebook where the equivalent print page would begin. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

A

aoli: baby squid in their ink with vermicelli and aoli

easy aoli

le grand aoli

almonds: almond and pine nut pastries

almond pudding with apricot compote

amandines

chocolate cake

slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with couscous, dates and almonds

Trapani pesto

amaretti, pumpkin soup with orzo and

anchovies: potato salad with green olive tapenade

spaghetti with anchovies and olives

store-cupboard Mediterranean salad

stuffed peppers with breadcrumbs, anchovy, olives and capers

sweet and sour peperonata

tapenade

tarte pissaladire

Andalusian raisin and sweet wine ice cream

apples: apple chaussons

apple parfait with calvados or rum

Sangria jelly

apricots: almond pudding with apricot compote

chicken with apricots and pistachios

asparagus: green barley risotto with peas and asparagus

potatoes, asparagus tips and eggs

aubergines: aubergine pure

aubergine with pomegranate dressing and yoghurt sauce

aubergines in a spicy honey sauce with soft goats cheese

bulgur pilaf with chickpeas, aubergines and tomatoes

spicy fried minced meat on a bed of aubergine and yoghurt pure

B

bacon, bean stew with chorizo and

barley: barley with mushrooms and chestnuts

green barley risotto with peas and asparagus

basil: cream of green pea soup with pistou

pasta with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil

Trapani pesto

bean stew with chorizo and bacon

beef: meat pies in filo pastry

Provenale daube

spicy fried minced meat on a bed of aubergine and yoghurt pure

beetroot: chilled cream of beetroot and yoghurt soup

berries: fresh berries in orange caramel syrup

bouillabaisse

bread: focaccia

gazpacho Andaluz

muhammara walnut and roast pepper dip

breadcrumbs: stuffed peppers with breadcrumbs, anchovy, olives and capers

bream: fried fish with cumin and tahini sauce