5-ingredient Mediterranean cookbook Amazingly healthy quick-fix meals

This approachable and exciting guide offers up simple Mediterranean dishes that use five ingredients or fewer (excluding salt, pepper, cooking fat, and water). It's an expansive collection that celebrates the versatility of the Mediterranean diet. From Southern Europe, there is Provencal herb tapenade, Spanish cream of asparagus soup, and sizzling rosemary shrimp over polenta, a "staple in Italy since the sixteenth century." Selections from North Africa include Moroccan-style grilled tuna, baked chicken with a nutty dukkah crust from Egypt, and spice-dusted sweet potatoes. There are also dishes from the Middle East, including Turkish poached eggs in garlicky yogurt served for breakfast or as a mezze, homemade labneh, and a Lebanese-style green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and lemon-mint vinaigrette. Highlights in the desserts chapter include baked apples with cream and amaretti, and poached vanilla-scented pears and figs. Interspersed throughout are nutritional trivia ("Phytonutrients in grapes are believed to contribute to longevity," the editors note) and fascinating cultural tidbits about Mediterranean cuisine ("Whole-wheat pita bread dates back to the 20th century BCE in ancient Egypt"). A majority of the recipes can be completed in less than an hour, and most ingredients are readily available at local supermarkets. Busy home cooks would do well to check this out. (Jan.)