Our best Mediterranean recipes include recipes for Mediterranean breakfasts – from chakchouka to çılbır – Mediterranean dips, snacks and starters such as Arabic mezze and Spanish tapas, and Mediterranean salads, from fattoush to panzanella. We’ve got Mediterranean pastas, Mediterranean soups and stews, and main courses from right across the Mediterranean region.
A compilation of our best Mediterranean recipes is long overdue, especially as some of our most popular recipes on Grantourismo are Mediterranean dishes. We’ve got recipes for every kind of meal and from the length and breadth of the region, from Portugal to Palestine.
But before I share our best Mediterranean recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo. One way is by making a donation to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to use links to the products below on Amazon or buy something else, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
Alternatively, you could use these links to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. You could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks and jigsaw puzzles designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about our best Mediterranean recipes.
Best Mediterranean Recipes – From Mezze to Tapas, Fattoush to Panzanella
Our best Mediterranean recipes include recipes for Mediterranean breakfasts, salads, snacks, dips, pastas, soups, stews, and main courses from right across the Mediterranean.
Mediterranean Breakfast Recipes
Turkish Poached Eggs Recipe with Garlic Yoghurt and Chilli Oil for Cilbir
This Turkish poached eggs recipe makes cilbir – more correctly çılbır, pronounced ‘chil-bir’ – a delicious Turkish brunch dish of runny eggs immersed in creamy garlic yoghurt, drizzled with buttery chilli oil, and garnished with fragrant fresh dill. In Turkey, pul biber, made from Turkish red chilli peppers, is sprinkled on, but you could use Aleppo pepper. We also add some of our homemade chilli oil, which is a cinch to make, but this chilli-infused olive oil would also be wonderful. This eggs dish, along with our other Mediterranean eggs dishes, was published as part of our Weekend Eggs recipes series on the quintessential breakfast eggs dishes of places we’ve travelled around world.
Turkish Poached Eggs Recipe with Garlic Yoghurt and Chilli Oil for Cilbir
Eggs in Purgatory Recipe from Southern Italy, The Calabrian Rendition
This eggs in purgatory recipe for uova al purgatorio in Italian makes the Calabrian rendition of this Southern Italian specialty. A centuries-old dish of soft poached eggs in a rich tomato sauce, the dish originated in Naples and it’s another of our best Mediterranean recipes. The secret to this spicy iteration of that family favourite is ’nduja, the spreadable, spicy sausage from Spilinga in Italy’s southernmost province. In Calabria it’s also known as uova fra diavolo (eggs between the devil) and uova ca ’nduja (eggs with spicy Calabrian sausage), and it’s another of our best tomato recipes.
Eggs in Purgatory Recipe from Southern Italy – The Calabrian Rendition of Eggs with Spicy Nduja
North African Chakchouka Recipe for Poached Eggs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
This North African chakchouka recipe makes poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce and it’s one of our best Mediterranean recipes. While it’s thought that this recipe comes from Tunisia, chakchouka (also written as shakshuka) is found right across North Africa and we’ve eaten it everywhere from Morocco to the Levant during our years living in the Middle East.
North African Chakchouka Recipe for Poached Eggs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
Huevos con Chorizo Recipe for Scrambled Eggs with Spanish Chorizo
Our huevos con chorizo or scrambled eggs with chorizo is one of our most favourite breakfast eggs dish and another of our best Mediterranean recipes. This recipe was created for the Jerez edition of Weekend Eggs and deviates from the classic Mexican huevos revueltos con chorizo we first fell in love with in Mexico many years ago as it uses Spanish chorizo. The chorizo in southern Spain is fantastic for this kind of scrambled eggs and the Spanish chorizo we bought at Jerez market was perfect: a spicy, fatty, pork sausage seasoned with pimentón (smoky paprika).
Huevos con Chorizo Recipe for Scrambled Eggs with Spanish Chorizo Made in Jerez
Turkish Scrambled Eggs Recipe for Menemen
This Turkish scrambled eggs recipe makes menemen, a highlight of traditional Turkish breakfast spreads from Istanbul to Izmir. Often compared to shakshuka and eggs in purgatory, menemen is a Turkish breakfast dish of eggs scrambled in a spicy tomato sauce in a pan. White cheese, green peppers and sucuk sausage can be added. The addition of onion is much debated.
Turkish Scrambled Eggs Recipe for Menemen for a Traditional Turkish Breakfast Spread
Mediterranean Dip Recipes
Authentic Olive Tapenade Recipe
This easy olive tapenade recipe is one of our best Mediterranean recipes. This recipe is based on the traditional French tapenade recipe from Provence in southern France that’s made with only four ingredients – juicy Kalamata olives, briny capers, salted anchovies, and extra virgin olive oil. You could add garlic, herbs and spices, but this Mediterranean olive dip is absolutely delicious in its original form, eaten on fresh or toasted baguette slices, pintxos or crostini.
Easy Olive Tapenade Recipe for the Traditional French Tapenade Recipe with Only 4 Ingredients
Easy Butter Bean Dip Recipe
Our easy butter bean dip recipe makes a creamy hummus-like Mediterranean dip flavoured with garlic, onion, cumin, and lemon. A little Greek yoghurt gives this creamy white bean dip an even creamier consistency, while fresh lemon juice adds tang, and cumin brings subtle spice. Finished with extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of smoky paprika, it’s fantastic with crispy pita chips and crudités, and is easily another of our best Mediterranean recipes.
Easy Butter Bean Dip Recipe for a Creamy Hummus Style Dip with Crispy Pita Chips and Crudités
Homemade Traditional Hummus
This easy authentic hummus recipe makes a homemade traditional creamy hummus that a Lebanese friend taught Terence when we lived in Abu Dhabi in the late Nineties and it’s another one of our best New Years Eve recipes. Like our tapenade and smoked salmon dip, this recipe makes a hummus that beats a store-bought hummus any day. If you have a can of chick peas in the cupboard, hummus is one of the best dip recipes for pairing with crackers and crudités.
Easy Authentic Hummus Recipe for a Creamy Homemade Traditional Hummus
Authentic Baba Ganoush Recipe
Our authentic baba ganoush recipe will make you the traditional Middle Eastern eggplant dip – also spelt baba ghanoush, baba ghanouj and baba ganouj – that’s eaten with flatbread as one of an array of Arabic mezze or appetisers. Made with smoky grilled eggplants, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil, it’s super easy to make and tastes better homemade.
Authentic Baba Ganoush Recipe for the Traditional Middle Eastern Eggplant Dip
Taramosalata Recipe for a Greek Style Tarama Dip
This homemade taramosalata recipe is another of our best Mediterranean recipes. This easy recipe will make you a Greek style tarama dip made with red caviar or fish roe and is so quick and easy to make you’ll never buy a supermarket dip again. We’ve used an affordable red lumpfish roe but you could use a more expensive red caviar or red salmon roe, or cod roe for the creamy colour of the more traditional Greek meze dish.
Taramosalata Recipe for a Greek Style Tarama Dip Made with Red Caviar or Fish Roe
Homemade Pita Chips Recipe for Crunchy Baked Pita Crisps
This quick and easy homemade pita chips recipe will make you super crunchy baked pita crisps that are made within minutes, making it one of our best New Years Eve recipes. They’re perfect for scooping up dips such a hummus, baba ghanoush, guacamole, and salsas, or using in the Arabic salad fattoush. They’re also versatile – brush them with olive oil flavoured with spices or herbs to complement any dip.
Easy Homemade Pita Chips Recipe for Crunchy Baked Pita Crisps Made in Minutes
Mediterranean Snacks Recipes
Best Spanish Tapas Recipes for a Tapas Bar Feast at Home
Our best Spanish tapas recipes include recipes for some of the most popular Spanish tapas bar snacks: the Spanish meatballs called albondigas, chorizo and potato croquettes recipe for croquetas de patata y chorizo, the classic garlic shrimp recipe for gambas al ajillo, a Spanish chorizo in red wine recipe for chorizo al vino tinto, and a simple calamari recipe for calamari a la plancha. If you’re not already a lover of Spanish tapas, a tapa is a small snack plate available at tapas bars in Spain and abroad – tapas is plural – where a tapas bar crawl is the best means by which to sample these delicious morsels.
Best Spanish Tapas Recipes for a Tapas Bar Feast at Home (Not the Same, but Still Lots of Fun)
Tomato and Basil Bruschetta Recipe for the Classic Italian Aperitivo Snack
This classic tomato and basil bruschetta recipe shows you how to make this popular Italian aperitivo snack or dinner starter the traditional way. It’s one of our best Mediterranean recipes and one of our best tomato recipes, a quick and easy recipe that relies on little else but flavourful tomatoes, fresh fragrant basil and good quality olive oil. Bruschetta is meant to be a refreshing aperitivo snack or dinner starter, a palate cleanser designed to get the taste buds activated to go on to your first course of dinner or heavier snacks. Fresh onion and balsamic vinegar? That’s a no.
Classic Tomato and Basil Bruschetta Recipe – How to Make The Italian Aperitivo Snack
Summery Greek Salad Bruschetta with Olive Sourdough Bread
This Greek salad bruschetta made with olive sourdough bread with rosemary, thyme and sweet red capsicum takes us back to languid lunches eaten barefoot at a beachside taverna where a Greek salad was always the first dish ordered. Pile the classic salad ingredients atop toasted slices of homemade olive sourdough, heady with the aromas of olive oil, Kalamata olives and herbs, good Greek feta, and you’ve got a snack you’ll want to eat in the sun after a swim.
Summery Greek Salad Bruschetta with Olive Sourdough Bread for a Slice of the Mediterranean
Nduja Pizza Recipe and How to Make a Dutch Oven Pizza
Our easy nduja pizza recipe makes a gently spiced pizza with the spicy Calabrian spreadable pork sausage combined with tomatoes and tomato paste to make a delicious base. Although cooked in a Dutch oven it manages to have the hallmarks of a pizza made in a traditional pizza oven. Our ’nduja pizza recipe was shared as part of series of ’nduja recipes that we kicked off with an introduction to Calabria’s ’nduja di Spilinga, followed by Terence’s spin on Australian chef Christine Manfield’s eggplant ‘sandwich’ with ’nduja instead of basil pesto. If you can’t find any ‘nduja locally, you can buy ’nduja online.
Nduja Bruschetta Recipe with Goats Cheese and Sweet Red Capsicum
This easy nduja bruschetta recipe with goat’s cheese and sweet red capsicum makes a snack that’s perfect for a brunch or lunch spread, finger food or pre-dinner nibbles. The ’nduja brings the salami heat, the goat’s cheese brings a creamy sweetness, and the red peppers add a nice acidic tartness. It was shared as part of our series of recipes for using Calabrian ’nduja. If you can’t source fresh red capsicums or don’t have the patience to go through the process of peeling the skins, then, just like jarred olives, you can get fantastic red capsicums in jars. That’s how Italians preserve andstore them once the season is finished.
Easy Nduja Bruschetta Recipe with Goats Cheese and Sweet Red Capsicum
Mediterranean Salad Recipes
Easy Cherry Tomato Salad Recipe for a Taste of Summer on the Mediterranean
This is the best tomato salad recipe if you want a taste of summer on the Mediterranean and it’s one of my favourite summer salad recipes. Super quick and easy to make, it’s so easy that after you make this you’ll never have to look at it again. One of our best recipes with tomatoes, the key to making this tomato salad taste so great is fresh, flavourful produce and top quality ingredients: the sweetest tomatoes and crunchiest cucumbers, a grassy extra virgin olive oil, sweet red onions, briny capers, Ortiz salted anchovies, aromatic Italian basil, juicy Kalamata olives, and the best feta cheese you can find.
Easy Cherry Tomato Salad Recipe for a Taste of Summer on the Mediterranean
Fattoush Salad Recipe with Pita Chips Made from Stale Pita Bread
This classic fattoush salad recipe makes a traditional Lebanese village salad of ripe tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, zingy radishes, fresh fragrant herbs, and quintessential Mediterranean ingredients such as extra virgin olive oil, and it’s one of our best recipes for stale pita bread. Tossed in a delightful salad dressing distinguished by the beloved Middle Eastern ingredients of pomegranate seeds and ground sumac, fattoush is often called a pita bread salad, as it’s textured with crispy pita chips. There are instructions for making super simple unseasoned pita chips from scratch in the fattoush recipe in the post.
Fattoush Salad Recipe for a Traditional Lebanese Village Salad
Panzanella Salad Recipe for a Tuscan Style Bread and Tomato Salad
This easy panzanella salad recipe makes the delicious Tuscan style bread and tomato salad that tastes of summer in Italy and it’s one of the best recipes for stale bread. It’s one of those quintessentially ‘less is more’ Italian dishes consisting of little else but sweet ripe tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, zingy onions, aromatic basil, extra virgin olive oil and vinegar, and days-old bread. It exemplifies what Mediterranean la cucina povera is all about. Quite literally ‘poor cooking’ or ‘poor kitchen’, historically it was ‘peasant food’ but these days is associated with the food of the Italian countryside, which is rooted in seasonality and a no-waste philosophy.
Panzanella Salad Recipe for the Tuscan Bread and Tomato Salad that Tastes of Summer in Italy
Warm Potato Salad Recipe with Anchovies, Capers and Chives
Our easy warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves makes a Mediterranean style potato salad with a zingy dressing of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar. It’s a fantastic winter side to chicken schnitzel or fried chicken and while wonderful served warm, it also tastes delicious chilled, making it a great year-round salad.
Warm Potato Salad Recipe with Anchovies, Capers, Chives and Celery Leaves That’s Also Delicious Cold
Antalya Style Turkish White Bean Salad Recipe
This Antalya style Turkish white bean salad recipe with jammy soft boiled eggs makes you my take on Antalya usulü piyaz – a Turkish white bean salad made the Antalya way. Traditionally, the cold, soupy, garlicky white beans are topped with tomatoes, onions and hard-boiled eggs. I blend the white beans for a hummus-like texture, pile on a salad of cherry tomatoes, purple shallots and fresh herbs, and top with jammy eggs. It’s one of our best Mediterranean recipes, as well as one of our best canned beans recipes.
Antalya Style Turkish White Bean Salad Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs for Antalya Piyaz
Spanish Potato Salad Recipe for Ensaladilla Rusa
This Spanish potato salad recipe makes ensaladilla Rusa or ensalada Rusa, one of the most popular Spanish tapas bar snacks and one of my favourite potato salad recipes. Ensalada means salad in Spanish and it’s an appetiser size called raciones, while ensaladilla means little salad and is a smaller tapas snack size. ‘Rusa’ means Russian, as this salad is the Spanish version of the Russian Olivier salad. In Spain, this creamy potato salad is typically served with crunchy mini breadsticks called picos.
Spanish Potato Salad Recipe for the Popular Spanish Tapas Dish Ensaladilla Rusa
Mediterranean Soup Recipes
Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho Recipe from Spain
This gazpacho recipe makes an authentic Andalusian style gazpacho from southern Spain of the kind that you’ll find in cities such as Seville. The recipe results in a vibrant orange gazpacho that tastes like a garden salad in the form of a cold summer soup. Of the many bowls and glasses of gazpacho we slurped and sipped over a couple of decades or so over travelling to Spain, we reckon this recipe makes the best gazpacho and one of our best Mediterranean recipes.
Best Gazpacho Recipe for an Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain
Mango Gazpacho Recipe for Gazpacho de Mango
Our mango gazpacho recipe, called gazpacho de mango in Spain where it originates, is one of our best cold soup recipes. It comes from a family of chilled soups that are typically consumed on sizzling summer days. While gazpacho de mango is found mostly in Catalunya and on Mallorca, this cold summer soup may have originated in Spain’s mango growing region in Andalusia, home also to the classic tomato-based gazpacho Andaluz.
Mango Gazpacho Recipe for Gazpacho de Mango, A Chilled Soup for Summer
Green Minestrone Soup Recipe that Changes Like the Seasons
This green minestrone soup recipe makes an easy, versatile, year-round soup that starts out as a light fresh spring soup the first day, but leave it overnight and it evolves into a warming, hearty autumn broth. Vegetables can be substituted according to the season but use frozen peas and beans in autumn/fall/winter and you can pretend it’s spring. While we’re eating it the first night, I leave the remaining soup to simmer longer, until the potatoes are soft and starting to break apart, until the butter beans are rich and creamy, and the Parmigiano Reggiano rind is melting and oozing. I refrigerate it overnight and the next day we have a hearty stew-like broth.
Authentic Moroccan Chickpea Soup Recipe from a Marrakech Kitchen
Our authentic Moroccan chickpea soup recipe is one of our favourite chickpea soup recipes. It makes a warming, hearty bowl of soup that’s a meal in itself – particularly when served with some oven-fresh flatbread. Terence learnt to make this chickpea soup in a Marrakech kitchen back in 2010 and hasn’t tweaked a thing since. A tin of chickpeas, can of tomatoes and chicken stock form the basis of this soup, and vegetarians can sub vegetable stock. If you prefer to make this with dried chickpeas, rather than canned chickpeas, you need to start the day before and soak the dried chickpeas overnight to soften them.
Authentic Moroccan Chickpea Soup Recipe Straight from a Marrakech Kitchen
Basque Garlic Soup Recipe for a Spiced Bread and Egg Soup
This Basque garlic soup recipe makes a gently spiced bread and egg drop soup that’s deliciously rich and hearty. It’s one of our best Mediterranean recipes and one of favourite warming winter soups. The creamy texture comes courtesy of whisked eggs drizzled into the broth and the deep flavours are thanks to generous amounts of garlic, paprika and sherry vinegar. Ground chillies give the warming soup an extra kick of heat.
Basque Garlic Soup Recipe for a Gently Spiced Bread and Egg Drop Soup
Ribollita Soup Recipe for a Hearty Tuscan Style Bread Soup
Our classic ribollita soup recipe makes the Tuscan bean, kale and bread soup, invented to use up leftovers, including days-old bread. ‘Ribollita’ means ‘re-boiled’ in Italian and traditionally this hearty vegetarian broth was made with leftover soup, such as minestrone or white bean soup that was re-boiled with old bread. If you love soups as much as I do – fish soups, chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, warming winter soups, cold summer soups, I adore them all – then you’re going to love this ribollita recipe made from scratch, using stale sourdough bread, but you can use any country-style bread.
Classic Ribollita Soup Recipe for a Hearty Tuscan Style Bean, Kale and Bread Soup
Montenegro Riblja Čorba Recipe
We were taught to make this recipe for riblja corba fish soup, another of one of our best winter soup recipes, at Cesarica restaurant in the Old Town of Kotor, Montenegro by chef Rino Janovic, a fisherman and sea captain whose family’s seafaring traditions go back several generations. This fish soup is on many menus but Cesarica’s riblja corba was sublime. Rino’s recipe was handed down through his family for generations. The fish is cooked whole in the pot, then the pieces are removed, deboned, and returned to the soup. In Kotor, where the chef uses a variety of fish to give the soup a really full flavour, his favourites are mullet and sea bass.
Mediterranean Pasta Recipes
Spaghetti con Vongole e Bottarga Recipe from Sardinia, Italy
This spaghetti con vongole e bottarga recipe was taught to us by locals in Teulada, Sardinia, when we were on the island during the year-long grand tour of the world that launched Grantourismo. Terence made it for the same people a couple of nights later for a dinner party. The classic, simple, fisherman’s version of this dish consists of spaghetti, olive oil (home-pressed, of course!), a little chilli, and the bottarga – salted, pressed, dried, and ground grey mullet roe – salted, pressed, dried, and ground grey mullet roe is left in a bowl on the table, so each person can vary the amount they sprinkle on their plate depending on individual taste.
Spaghetti con Vongole e Bottarga Recipe Made in Teulada on the Island of Sardinia, Italy
Orecchiette con Sugo al Pomodoro Recipe from Alberobello in Puglia
Our orecchiette con sugo al pomodoro recipe comes courtesy of Maria, the caretaker of the traditional trullo we settled into for two weeks in Alberobello in Puglia in Southern Italy, who taught us to make it in the rustic kitchen of the conical-shaped white house. She arrived one day with her pasta board and a huge bag of flour, Semola di Grano Duro, which she uses to make pasta, pizza bases and bread dough (more here on our pizza making) taught Terence how to make the pasta using ingredients she had grown herself, from vine-ripened cherry tomatoes to first-pressed olive oil. We’d just written about the sublime simplicity of Italian cuisine and that experience typified everything we love about Italy, Italians and Italian food. Simple honest dishes, made using the best ingredients, treated with respect.
Orecchiette con Sugo al Pomodoro Recipe from Alberobello in Puglia in Southern Italy
Bigoli con Salsa Recipe for a Classic Venetian Pasta Dish
This bigoli con salsa recipe from Venice, Italy, is made with wholewheat pasta with an onion and anchovy sauce, sprinkled liberally with parsley. It’s a classic Venetian pasta dish that is deceptively simple and decidedly delicious, and it’s one of our best pasta recipes. As Francesco, the owner of one of our favourite Venice restaurants, Antiche Carampane, told us when we sought his advice on what we should make from Venice for our series The Dish: “It’s the salty seafood taste of the anchovies combined with the sweetness of the onions that make bigoli con salsa so special.”
Bigoli con Salsa Recipe – How to Make This Classic Venetian Pasta Dish
Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Recipe for A Puglian Classic
This orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe recipe is one that Terence cooks when he can’t bring himself to make another carbonara or puttanesca, my most requested pastas. Orecchiette with sausage and broccoli is a classic Italian combination from Puglia, but broccoli rabe or rapini, and broccolini also work, and crispy pancetta adds salt and crunch. We first sampled orecchiette with sausage and broccoli, as well as with rapini, in restaurants around Alberobello in Puglia, with Maria, who we mentioned, above. Using rapini, sometimes as the centrepiece of a dish, is very popular in the south of Italy.
Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Recipe – A Puglian Classic with a Twist
Ragu alla Bolognese Recipe for a Traditional Bolognese Sauce from Northern Italy
Ragu alla Bolognese is one of the most misinterpreted dishes dishes in the world. While a carbonara sauce recipe is often abused with the introduction of cream, ragu alla Bolognese has all sorts of crimes committed against this staple of the Italian cuisine cannon. This ragu alla Bolognese recipe is based on the traditional recipe for the classic meat sauce from Bologna in Emilia Romagna, Northern Italy, which is used for both pasta and lasagne. Follow Terence’s exacting ingredient list and cooking directions and the result will be a rich ragù alla Bolognese. It’s a recipe we go to when we’re in need of comfort food.
Ragu alla Bolognese Recipe for a Traditional Bolognese Sauce from Northern Italy
Classic Lasagne alla Bolognese Recipe from Emilia Romagna
Rich and comforting, this traditional lasagne Bolognese begins with a great Bolognese ragù that’s layered between flat pasta sheets and besciamella, Italy’s version of France’s béchamel sauce, and Parmigiano Reggiano. This classic lasagne alla Bolognese recipe makes a very traditional version of the Italian comfort food in the style that you’ll find in Bologna in Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy, one of our favourite regions in Italy. That means thinner sheets of pasta, a sparing use of besciamella, no mozzarella, and a flavour profile that’s more savoury than sweet.
Classic Lasagne alla Bolognese Recipe from Emilia Romagna – Best Lasagne Recipe Ever
Rich Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe for Pasta, Pizza, Meatballs, and More
Make this classic Italian tomato sauce recipe for an incredibly rich tomato sauce that can be served with pasta or meatballs and spread onto pizza bases or parmas and you’ll never buy a store-bought jar of ready-made Italian pasta sauce again. Quick and easy, it tastes like it’s been simmering for hours. The key ingredient: quality canned Italian tomatoes. This recipe gets used in my juicy Italian meatballs recipe, my spaghetti with meatballs recipe, above, and my recipe for Italian-Australian chicken parmigiana or chicken parma, as we call the breaded chicken cutlets topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella.
Rich Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe for Pasta, Pizza, Meatballs, Parmas and More
Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe from Southern Italy
My best spaghetti and meatballs recipe makes an incredibly delicious version of the much-loved comfort food classic with juicy meatballs and a rich deeply flavoured tomato sauce made from scratch. The spaghetti is combined with the sauce before serving, in true Italian style, and topped with the meatballs, a generous sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano and fragrant fresh basil leaves. The only things we haven’t made are the dried pasta and Parmigiano Reggiano, because Italians do both better. Serve the second it’s ready with crusty bread.
Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe for the Comfort Food Favourite from Southern Italy
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca Recipe for the Piquant Southern Italian Pasta
Terence’s spaghetti alla puttanesca recipe makes a rustic pasta dish with a piquant sauce from Southern Italy. Infused with the flavours of garlic, capers, olives, anchovies, and crushed red pepper, it makes a tomato based pasta sauce like no other. Note that the sauce doesn’t taste like anchovies as the anchovies are mashed into the sauce. It’s the combination of all of the ingredients that make this an umami bomb balanced by the sweetness of the tomatoes. If you’re making this for guests who don’t like anchovies, just don’t tell them that there are any in the sauce. Ask if they have allergies of course, but an allergic reaction to anchovies is very rare.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca Recipe – How to Make this Piquant Southern Italian Pasta
Mediterranean Braised and Grilled Meat Recipes
Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe
This braised chicken with olives and capers recipe quickly became one of our top chicken recipes after we published it late last year and it’s another one of our best Mediterranean recipes. We love to serve it with mini Hassleback potatoes although it’s also wonderful with creamy mashed potatoes too. If you want to nibble something first while the chicken is cooking, make my roasted cauliflower recipe. It will make you a Middle Eastern inspired dish of cauliflower florets oven-roasted in a spiced olive oil, piled onto a spread of creamy hummus, and topped with crunchy fried chickpeas, zingy pickled shallots, and fresh mint leaves.
Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe for Juicy Mediterranean Style Chicken
Beef Kofta Recipe for Grilled Ground Meat Kebabs
Our beef kofta recipe makes traditional Lebanese kafta – grilled, spiced, ground meat kebabs that are made throughout the Middle East. Cooked at home, served at restaurants, and barbecued in parks at family gatherings on weekends and holidays, these Arabic minced meat kebabs are one of the most beloved dishes in a region that loves its grilled meats. This is another of our top 31 recipes to make in January.
Beef Kofta Recipe for Lebanese Kafta – Grilled Spiced Ground Meat Kebabs
Mediterranean Stew Recipes
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew
Our classic chicken cacciatore recipe will make you a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce, which we smother the succulent chicken thighs in, and serve with thick slices of sourdough bread to mop up the rich sauce – just as the Italians do. Chicken cacciatore is an old dish called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’. In Italy, Italians traditionally eat chicken cacciatore as a main course or second course with crusty bread. Although in some parts of Northern Italy, chicken cacciatore is eaten with polenta or risotto. If you have leftovers, make this chicken cacciatore pasta recipe for spaghetti cacciatore – although you can use any pasta you have in the pantry.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives
This Moroccan chicken tagine recipe with preserved lemons and olives is another of our best Mediterranean dishes. It makes what is probably one of Morocco’s most quintessential tagines, alongside lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe. Infused with intense citrus notes, thanks to umami-rich preserved lemons, the comforting Moroccan stew is traditionally eaten with crusty round bread called khobz. It’s also delicious with couscous, just don’t tell your Moroccan friends!
Classic Moroccan Chicken Tagine Recipe with Preserved Lemons and Olives
Classic Toulouse Cassoulet Recipe from the South of France
Cassoulet is one of the most quintessential dishes of France, for us; alongside French onion soup and cote de boeuf. Our classic Toulouse cassoulet recipe makes a hearty stew of haricot beans, pork, sausages, and duck confit, and is one of countless versions of cassoulet. While Castelnaudary, about 180km from Ceret, is the self-proclaimed capital of cassoulet, which is named after the cassole, the earthenware pot it is often cooked in, we cooked and ate this cassoulet in a small Catalan mountain town called Ceret, near the city of Perpignan.
Classic Toulouse Cassoulet Recipe Made in Ceret in Southern France
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our best Mediterranean recipes as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
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