Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean is my number one used cookbook in my house right now. My husband also says this is his favorite cookbook, which is high praise for someone who doesn’t really know about other cookbooks (other than a copy of Mark Bittman’s Everything Made Simple he got at graduation).
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Published by Voracious on April 6, 2021
Pages: 304
Quick and simple weeknight recipes that bring the delicious flavors and health benefits of the Mediterranean diet into your home—from the James Beard award-winning team at Milk Street
The Mediterranean diet is so much more than olive oil, grilled fish, and just-harvested vegetables—or its well-earned reputation for health. It is a diverse cuisine that encompasses the cultures and traditions of Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The food is direct, simple, and honest, served without disguise or embellishment.
Every Tuesday Nights recipe delivers big flavor, but the cooking is quick and easy. These 125 Mediterranean dinners are ready in under 45 minutes, with many taking just 20 minutes:
- Chicken alla Diavola with Broccoli
- Crispy Pasta with Chickpeas, Lemon and Parsley
- Fennel-Steamed Salmon with Warm Olive and Caper Vinaigrette
- Shrimp with Orzo, Tomatoes and Feta
- Panzanella with Fresh Mozzarella
- Green Shakshuka
- Flank Steak with Tomato-Eggplant Ragu
Chapters are organized by how you cook, focused on time—Fast (45 minutes), Faster (35 minutes), and Fastest (under 25 minutes)—while others dive into themes such as Hearty Vegetable Mains, Supper Soups, and Flat and Folded—including pizza, flatbreads, pita sandwiches, and panini. Many of the recipes require only one piece of cookware, and they all are built from pantry staples.
Dinner? Solved—every night of the week.
General Thoughts
The Milk Street Empire is well known to anyone interested in cookbooks, cooking shows and generally growing their home cooking skills. This book was my first Milk Street book that I got in part because it was on sale and the cover beautiful, as well as wanting a book on Mediterranean cooking. Luckily, it was a good one to start with. I’ve tried a lot of recipes from this cookbook over the last few years and the flavors are amazing. Each recipe always comes out good, in part because there are so many extra tips and tricks mentioned on how to get things right.
Weeknight Cooking?
This is a cookbook meant for weeknight cooking. It says it right in the name, Tuesday Nights. The point of this book, and it’t non-mediterranean themed siblings, is that all the recipes are doable on a weeknight. All recipes should take less than 45 minutes to make, though the fastest section has some for 20 minutes even. All in all, Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean is a great choice for the evening cook.
Basics or Advanced?
Generally, I would say that these recipes can be more moderate in terms of skills level, leaning more towards basics though. The book doesn’t go through everything step-by-beginner-step, and I personally made a couple recipes where I didn’t do it exactly how they described it and the form didn’t hold well together. The flavors were still amazing and generally everything was very edible for dinner, but there was something I didn’t do right and it was obvious. Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean is similar in level to the other Milk Street cookbooks, if you have experience with them.
Picture Quality
This cookbook has beautiful photography. There is a picture for every recipe, and they are styled perfectly.
Unique Tools and Ingredients?
Some of the ingredients can definitely be harder to find. Occasionally, the authors will give alternatives to these ingredients, and sometimes they won’t. There isn’t anything that I haven’t found at an international grocery store, but sometimes I do have to go out of my way to get some of the ingredients.
There’s no unique tools beyond the general assortment of kitchen products. A blender, a food processor and an oven is most of what you need for most recipes.
Recipes I’ve Cooked From Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean
Spicy ground beef kebabs with tomato-sumac sauce. Spiced beef and potato eggah. Green Shakshuka. Eggs in Purgatory. Rigatoni with pistachio, ricotta and herb pesto.
Recipes That I Have on my To-Make List From Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean
Sumac-spiced chicken cutlets with tomato-onion salad. Lebanese-style eggplant and chickpea stew. Provençal braised chicken.
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