How to bring a slice of the Mediterranean to your table

The name of the game is abundance, fresh produce and colour - it will feel as though you're on a secluded Mediterranean coastline... or at least eating like you are.

Roasted stuffed tomatoes (pomodori farciti al forno) Source: Benito Martin

The robust and vibrant flavours that we love about Mediterranean cooking are perfect for autumn alfresco eating and entertaining. A taste of any of these dishes will keep warm nights and ocean breezes lingering for longer.

In fact, with the right recipes and colourful balance, summertime need never leave you.

1. Think bounty

Choose a selection of dishes and your choices don't have to be something that creates stress. Make it a selection of little dishes that are each prepared with simplicity and charm.

Fritter delivery

Kefalograviera is an aged, hard, sheep's milk cheese with a distinctive nutty flavour. Source: Kitti Gould

When it comes to easy summer eating, a fritter always delivers the goods. This bright and fresh zucchini version is packed with all the Greek goodies - garlic, herbs, lemon, feta and kefalograviera.

Gives you wings

Ultimate crowd-pleaser. Source: Mark Roper

This Lebanese chicken dish will have you on cloud nine - it's all lemon and garlic-dowsed sticky, crispy chicken that's just made for finger-licking. takes about 10 minutes to pull together and an hour of enticing oven smells later you're good to go.

Toastie with the mostie

Hobz bil zeit translates as bread with oil - olive oil, of course. Source: Andrew Dorn

Hobz bil zeit is the easiest feast you'll ever pull together. Rounds of toasted baguette are topped with sunshine in the form of kunserva  - a Maltese sun-dried tomato paste that you should get your hands on if you can. Otherwise, use regular tomato paste and trust that the capers, olives, pickled onions and anchovies will be all the Mediterranean you need.

2. Olive oil is a must

If ever there was an ingredient that defined Mediterranean food, olive oil would have to be it. Glug as much of the stuff as you dare for maximum vitality.

Fry up and up

A Mallorcan-style stir-fry makes the oil a star ingredient. Source: Rochelle Eagle

You know you're onto a good thing when two types of olive oil are required just for the frying. Equal parts olive and extra-virgin ensure you get exactly the right flavour across your veggies.

Boozy tea

How to make a cake disappear in 3, 2... Source: Kitti Gould

A cup of extra-light olive oil keeps this raspberry tea cake extra moist. A creamy limoncello-spiked cream tops it off in true Mediterranean style.

Good evening wedge

This is the kind of dish you can whiz up in a jiffy when unexpected friends pop in for a drink. Source: Paola Bacchia

This simple Istrian dish, with wedges of firm polenta, olive oil and anchovy fillets, is a very tasty aperitivo with a glass of chilled wine or a beer to soak up the deliciously salty flavours.

3. Add fresh herbs, especially basil

With a distinctive, powerful flavour that somehow revs you up while it calms you down, basil is a necessity in Mediterranean cooking. In fact, don't skimp on any herby greens if you want to capture the Med's boldness.

Home of basil

Inside tip: throw a couple of ice cubes into the food processor when you're making your pesto. It will help your basil keep its vibrant green. Source: Jono Fleming

If we're talking basil, it's got to be pesto, right? It's the classic Genovese recipe that no glut of basil is too large for.

Green celebration

Kuku sabzi signifies starting afresh. Source: Adam Liaw

This is how to ring in the Persian New Year - with merriment, gratitude and massive ingestion of coriander, parsley and chives. That'll do it.

Saladsational

This salad is how you say delicious in Greek (actually, it's νόστιμος - same, same). Source: Alan Benson

Bring out your parsley, your olives and your oil, it's horiatiki salata time. Then all you need are tomatoes, onions cucumber and feta and you're practically living on Crete.

4. Afternoon dip

It's not just your body you'll want to dip when in the Mediterranean. Veggies, crackers and flatbreads are just as up for it.

Smoko

Eggplant, lemon, garlic, tahini, olive oil, pomegranate... is there anything missing from the bowl of good health? Source: One World Kitchen

A smoky combination that brings together so much of what makes Mediterranean dining so healthful - fresh ingredients, simply prepared, and shared with friends.

Toum good

Ditch the eggs and use garlic instead. Source: Tammi Kwok

Toum brings garlic, oil and lemons together as if by magic. Think of it as the Middle Eastern mayonnaise and dollop it on everything in sight.

Tara-more-salata

Skip the pink food dye and serve your taramosalata at its salmon-hued best. Source: Adam Liaw

A dippy fishy dishy that is so delicious on its own you can serve it with simple flatbreads and a smile.

5. Don't be afraid to stuff

Take a vegetable, any vegetable, fill it with tasty morsels and make it better. Works with seafood too.

Soft inside

There are no rules. Source: Danya Weiner and Deanna Linder

The contrast of tart capsicum outside and beefy soft inside is so delicious you won't even mind how messy your meal looks. Matter of fact, you'll be tempted to overstuff and let everything get extra-oozy in the oven. Truth: ugly food tastes better.

Mussel up

Aromatic rice-stuffed mussels will soon have you hooked. Source: Alan Benson

Molluscs take particularly well to stuffing, although small fish like sardines also do very well. And don't get us started on stuffing your oysters... be right back, we are off to the fish market.

Olive a stuffing

Note to self: life is not too short to stuff an olive. Source: Paola Bacchia

In Le Marche, you will find these little savoury stuffed olives for sale from food trucks. They are salty, fried and highly addictive.

Note to self: life is not too short to stuff an olive.

6. Everyday sides with a little somethin' somethin'

Why eat plain when you can so easily go fancy?

Mash up

The natural sweetness of roasted beetroot is perfection with garlicky skordalia. Source: Jeremy Simons

Add plenty of garlic and olive oil to your standard mash and weep.

Look out pyramids

Hyperbole aside, these carrots are a sensation. Source: Bloomsbury

Carrot may have a reputation for being the bore of the vegetable world, but it's barely recognisable once Egyptian cuisine gets hold of it and adds dukkah and preserved lemon. Surely one of their greatest inventions?

Bread glow up

Panzanella makes much out of little, using inexpensive, seasonal ingredients to great effect. Source: Kitti Gould

The Italians never waste a morsel and as a result, they have recipes that demand ingredients like stale bread. Panzanella doesn't even work as a salad if your bread isn't at least a day too old, preferably three.

7. Let the veg do the talking

Meat isn't eaten often in most Mediterranean cultures and fish only sometimes. Instead, meals abound with vegetables, beans, legumes and plenty of good nutrition.

Bean working

Mediterranean cuisine knows that beans have so much to offer beyond being an afterthought. Source: Danielle Abou Karam

Broad beans shine when introduced to the onion and olive oil. A helping of bay leaves temper the beany-flavour and prove that they do offer something to a recipe.

Tart it up

Tarts are both quick to make and universally loved. Source: Desiree Nielsen

Just about any vegetable works beautifully on a tart. Here it's plum tomatoes, but capsicum, zucchinis, brussels sprouts and spinach (spanikopita, anyone?) work just as well.

Stew on this

The low and slow stew can be left for hours in the oven, simmering in the residual heat after the bread comes out. Source: Karmen Tedesco

There is a dish similar to Malta's caponata in every Mediterranean cuisine. Vegetables stewed, sometimes with beans, and enjoyed both hot and cold. Tomatoes are almost always involved.

8. Because garlic

Garlic may well be one of the main reasons why the Mediterranean way of eating is so good for you. It's a known immunity booster, LDL cholesterol fighter and blood pressure reducer. But we love it because it makes everything taste so good!

Do shrimp

Garlic prawn and halloumi skewers showcase everything delicious about healthy eating. Source: Kitti Gould

Garlicky prawns and haloumi are a match made in Greek heaven. Add the sweet goodness of cherry tomatoes and your next barbecue is bounding athletically into health retreat territory.

Loaded fish

Lightly spiced with turmeric, paprika, chilli and garlic, and simmered with capsicum and coriander, chut b’chi zyu is surprisingly simple to make. Source: Brett Stevens

This tasty Moroccan fish dish packs in six cloves of garlic. Six! It also checks off Mediterranean classics like olive oil, spices, chilli, capsicum, fresh herbs and fish... and it's quick enough to make a weeknight special.

Nostalgia trip

This is one dreamy trip you'll want to take again and again. Source: Brett Stevens

Warm up your summer holiday! Proving that comfort food can exist in even the sunniest climate, tave kosi is the soothing classic that Albanians probably ask their mum to make whenever they return home. Garlicky lamb and rice are seasoned with oregano and then covered in a yoghurt topping which is baked to a golden, cheese-like crust.

9. Tomatoes like apples

The abundance of tomatoes in Mediterranean cuisine is no surprise - the climate is perfect for growing juicy toms almost year-round.

Fresh start

Ful medames blends the best of a light salad and a comforting stew, finished with a zesty tahini-based sauce. Source: Andrew Dorn

Egyptians eat ful medames for breakfast and a better start to the day would be hard to find. This way you've managed to eat an abundance of fresh herbs, vegetables and beans before you're even properly awake.

Pasta ❤️ tomatoes

When cooking a dish as uncomplicated as this be sure to source the freshest possible ingredients. Source: Kitti Gould

Across Italy tomatoes are blended, squashed, diced and sieved through every kind of pasta... and it is always a hit. Often the gentler the treatment, the better the dish as this simple fresh tomato linguine proves.

Perfect mates

Roasting caramelises tomatoes' sugars, enhancing their sweetness. Source: Benito Martin

Bringing together a Mediterranean penchant for stuffing (see above) and their love of tomatoes results in one of the best summer dishes you'll ever eat. Big call, answered.

10. Wine over wine

We'd be remiss if we didn't serve you up some wine with this list of Med faves. It's so often the ingredient that adds the 'extra' to any dish (or Nonna's secret weapon, but don't tell her we told you!).

Soaked in it

Bite into this shawarma and you're instantly walking along Byblos Beach at sunset. Not one word of a lie. Source: China Squirrel

Marinade your lamb for shawarma in red wine and drown your taste buds in delight. A good wine soaking brings out the best in so many cuts of red meat. White wine works just as well for chicken and pork.

Cheers to crackers

Traditionally served as a stuzzichino (an appetiser), these crisp fennel-scented biscuits hail from Puglia. Source: Alan Benson

The Italians love their vino so much that they even put it in their crackers. Taralli is flavoured with both wine and fennel and is snacked on year-round with, you guessed it, a glass of wine.

Bubble up

This dessert will happily make you a bit wibbly, wobbly yourself. Source: Adelina Pulford

We'll end with a sparkle in the form of a silky pannacotta made with prosecco. After all, there is much to celebrate here! Saluti!