Garlic, Olive Oil + Everything Mediterranean: Simple Recipes for the Home Cook

Daen’s Kitchen blogger Lia debuts with an appetizing assortment of classic Mediterranean dishes divided into six parts by key ingredient. The opening section, on garlic, features both building blocks—including garlic confit and intensely garlic-infused butter—and more elaborate dishes that put these fundamentals to use, among them garlic and sour cream puff pastry, clams with chile and anchovies, and slow roasted lamb shoulder. The olive oil chapter includes a salad of grilled peaches and burrata with basil-infused dressing, a baked pasta dish with eggplant fit for a crowd, and pan-fried salmon served with rich tomato confit. In the butter chapter, Lia instructs home cooks on how to make their own in a stand mixer before serving up fennel and lemon risotto, and mussels cooked in white wine and butter. A section focused on bread includes instructions for foccacia and, oddly, bagels with helpful step-by-step photo guides, while the section on bread crumbs features “popcorn eggplant” and chicken parmesan. In the brief final chapter, on eggs, there’s spinach feta quiche and homemade pasta dough. The organizational scheme becomes a bit murky as ingredients bleed from one chapter to the next, but Lia’s enthusiasm is infectious and the rustic photography appeals. Anyone looking to expand their Mediterranean repertoire will find this a handy resource. (May)